EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT

Worker Justice

Worker Justice

Unions are one of the very best ways for workers to bring greater justice to the workplace.
However, workers’ right to form a union has been seriously eroded in the U.S. The Employee Free Choice Act would begin to level the playing field between workers and management.                 

Show your support for strengthening the right of workers to form unions. Sign the petition urging the new Congress and President Obama to pass the Employee Free Choice Act here:       http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/jwj?source=w

Workers’ right to form or join a union is so important and fundamental that it is an internationally-recognized human right (Article 23 in the UN Universal Declaration of Human rights).  But in the U.S., weak legal protections, lax enforcement of existing law, and trivial penalties for employers who violate the law mean that, in many cases, workers cannot exercise their right to organize. At a time of burgeoning corporate power and growing inequality with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, unions have never been more necessary. Sign the petition urging Congress and President Obama to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. (As a senator, Barack Obama was a co-sponsor of the legislation.)

 

The Link – 01-27-2009

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A Recommendation: A Letter from Our Pastor

Dear Church Family and Friends,

I would like to recommend to you the Bible, but not just any Bible.  I want to recommend The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation.  Having grown tired of trying to adapt the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible so that our readings on Sunday morning are gender-inclusive, I was glad to finally discover this particular translation.
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Rebuking Hypocrisy, Inviting Change

First New Testament Reading—Matthew 22: 1-14

Second New Testament Reading—Mathew 23: 13-15, 27-28

Four years ago I found myself visiting a variety of churches from different denominations Sunday after Sunday as I worked on my dissertation.  Despite being in the bay area which is often stereotyped as liberal, I found quite a contrast among these churches.  At some of the largest churches in Oakland, I would hear the most conservative of preachers.  Although these preachers were very candid in stating many of their views from the pulpit, the pastor at one church nevertheless believed that there were certain issues he could not address without it leading to “World War III” in his congregation.  One of those issues was the war in Iraq.  He refused to speak of it in his sermons.  This was not to say he refrained from politics.  He did not hesitate to attack abortion and likely would have no problem condemning gay marriage.  In contrast to this preacher and his church, around the same time I was also visiting a black Baptist church that was open to gays and lesbians and where the pastor would lash out against the war, the handling of Katrina, and the then president all to the applause of his congregation.
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