Celebrating Labor Day

This sermon was delivered on Sepember 5, 2010 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Blacksburg, VA), by the Reverend Christine Brownlie.

Our “Welcome” song this morning, Bread and Roses, is associated with the very early days of the labor movement in America. The lyrics come from a poem by James Oppenheim that was published in American Magazine in December 1911. A month later, workers in a textile mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, January-March 1912, went on strike when the owner of the mill deducted 32 cents from their weekly pay in response to a court ruling that shortened the workweek by two hours. When the mill workers, mostly Polish immigrant women, realized what had happened, they began to shout, “Short pay! Short pay!” Other workers joined them, and they all walked out into the street where other workers who were also given short pay joined them. Mill workers in Lawrence went on strike and picketed the mills in the town. The story goes that some of the women carried signs that said, “Give us Bread and Roses,” but this has never been substantiated. Still, the connection remains, for as the old proverb says, we do not live by bread alone.¹

One of the accomplishments of the Labor movement was that it forced employers and lawmakers to recognize workers as human beings and not just as a means of production to be managed and exploited for the benefit of the wealth for themselves and others. In general, American workers have a far better life than those brave women and men who took to the streets a century ago! But this doesn’t mean that everyone enjoys a humane workplace where they are respected, treated fairly, or even protected from dangerous conditions as current laws require. There’s a long way to go, and I’ll talk more about that later. But these advances in work rules and conditions have not solved all of the sticky problems that American workers face today.

One of the challenging realities of our time is that as our society becomes ever more diverse, the workforce is changing too. In the past, there was a high degree of similarity in life experience and attitudes of American workers. The Civil Rights movement and the Women’s movement began the push for a more diverse workforce, and this has continued as our country absorbs immigrants from non-Western countries, as the attitude toward non-heterosexual people has shifted, and as a new generation comes of age. Suddenly we are confronted with new cultural norms, religious practices, and family configurations that are very different from what many of us grew up with. Younger workers aren’t so willing to put in the endless hours that some older workers were willing to do — they “want a life,” which means time for personal pursuits and relationships. This kind of diversity can offer a rich and exciting environment, but it can also lead to division and conflicts over values.

We naturally carry our values into to our workplace; let’s include our volunteer workplace in this discussion. Some of the most difficult values conflicts that I ever faced came about in my work with the PTA and Cub Scouts as we struggled over issues around religions expressions and the celebration of holidays. At this time my family was living in Ft. Worth Texas, which was a remarkably friendly city, but pretty homogenous. It was tough enough when the “different” people were Jewish. The issues became even more complex when the community became home to people from Iran, India, Cambodia, and other countries where cultural norms and religious practices were very different from what most of us had grown up with.

What is a humane work place? The very word “humane” is laden with values. I see a humane workplace as fostering an environment in which we accept one another as people with different abilities and different points of view. Certainly we won’t always agree, but our differences can be acknowledged as long as everyone is treated fairly and with courtesy. A humane workplace addresses the fundamentals of the needs of employees and their families — however we define that word. Parents may need time off to care for children; children may need time away to care for parents. Overtime should be optional whenever possible, without burdening single workers who don’t have family obligations. You can add to this list, but I hope I’ve included the basics.

Differences over values have always been difficult because they touch our deepest sense of who we are as individuals — our most cherished identity. Our values are the grounds of deepest sense of right and wrong; they are the foundation of our sense of the meaning and value of life. Conflicts over values are expressed in many ways — not just verbal arguments. I once worked as a Social Worker for a health-care organization. Our office consisted of a large room with long tables where we did our paper work. We sat in close proximity to each other and shared telephones. If one person came in with a cold or some other illness, we had to be very careful to keep the germs from spreading. One of the nurses became ill with rubella and was out for several days. At the time, none of the staff were aware of her illness, including the woman who sat next to her and shared a phone. That woman was in the first trimester of a pregnancy. The nurse who was ill did not want to disclose the nature of her illness to this woman because she was a practicing Catholic and was afraid that if this mother-to-be knew that she had been exposed to rubella that she would seek an abortion.

When this came to my attention, I felt that the mother-to-be needed to know immediately, and revealed the secret. She was, as one would expect, very upset and angry that someone had, in effect, made a decision for her and her husband based on values that they did not necessarily hold. Fortunately the baby was normal, but the violation of this couple’s right to make a free choice based on their values was never fully forgiven.

I think of other issues where a conflict in values can have a life-changing effect, as when workers are told to ignore safety rules or turn off safety equipment, or people who have committed crimes against children are shielded by those who are charged to protect those very victims and their families. These situations are exceptionally painful and disturbing because they are a terrible betrayal of values and relationships.

It seems to me that conflicts over values are becoming more toxic by the day, thanks to media that seems to look for new issues to fight over and new ways to arouse fear and anxiety. Disagreements that were already difficult seem to morph into ugly divisive conflicts. Social/political hot buttons abound: immigration, marriage equity, drill-baby-drill versus protecting the environment, climate change, the economy, and jobs. In any group of people — yes, even within this Congregation — there are likely to be wide differences in values that can lead to conflicts.

As we think about the values that we bring to our workplace, we might want to do a check to see if we live our values. Once, in the heat of a discussion, my conversation partner told me that while I claimed to value diversity, I really thought that everyone should think the way that I do. I had to admit that as I thought I was right, I did indeed wish that I could convince her to agree with me. “That’s not diversity!” she said. I replied that she wanted me to agree with her too. She said that the difference was that she did not claim to value diversity. We’d been talking about the issue of marriage equity and the rights of same-sex partners, and we both had strong opinions.

The lesson for me was that if I want to create a humane environment for all people, despite differences, I need to model that respect in my own dealings with my co-workers — even if I don’t agree with their point of view on issues that are important to me. That means no nasty labels that denigrate or demean. I would rather say that someone has homophobic opinions than to label him or her a “homophobe.” Ditto with racism. This might seem like hair-splitting to you, but to me this preserves my commitment to the claim of inherent worth and dignity in every person. This also means no snarky comments to the proponent of offshore drilling or the owner of the Hummer over the latest oilrig collapse.

If I want to be heard, I need to listen to others; not just out of courtesy, and not in an attitude of arrogant impatience, but with a sincere desire to understand and to meet the other person as a human being who, like me, is entitled to come to his or her own conclusions.

Sometimes we can manage problems in creative ways. When someone left religious tracts on a friend’s desk, she turned them into origami cranes — expressing a wish for peace — and gave them back to the giver, who got the message and ended her evangelism. Gentle displays of commitment to a value can be transforming. Someone told me how a co-worker who is also a member of our Congregation got his do-workers to be more aware of recycling paper. He did this by quietly checking office wastebaskets at the end of the day and pulling our any paper that could be recycled. No big lectures or displays of impatience. Before long, people became more aware and careful — and many recycled their own paper.

There are times when we might choose to speak up. For example, a fellow-worker complains that her son can’t find a summer job because all the low-skill work has been taken over by those “illegals from Mexico.” How should we respond if we find that this statement offends our values?

There’s a lot going on with this statement: the assumption about what the problem is, the assumption that all Mexicans are “illegals” and the assumption that there are work opportunities available. I can think of several options depending on our relationship with this person: Is she our supervisor? Is she very new and we aren’t all that in tune with her life situation? If this person is a long-time fellow employee and someone we know pretty well, we might challenge her claims.

We might practice the value of compassion by focusing our attention on her concern for her son and his need to earn some money— maybe spin off some ideas of where he might look for work. If this is our first week on the job, we might just say something non-committal and leave the room. If we choose the latter, I’d hope that we wouldn’t feel that we’d betrayed ourselves. There is truly a time and a place for everything, and my guess would be that other opportunities to address such prejudice will come up again.

And there are moments when action and a firm stance are called for. Bullies are not just a schoolyard phenomenon. Acts of sexual harassment cannot be ignored. Overt intolerance toward someone of another faith, race, sexual orientation or gender expression must be addressed. It helps if we can find allies, to advise us and stand with us. Sometimes we find ourselves on our own, and we feel very vulnerable. I think of people who have been whistle-blowers in very tense situations. I remember that when the now-defunct energy company known as Enron was being scrutinized for fraud and manipulation of the energy supply to its customers, a couple of brave souls were acknowledged for their efforts to alert the authorities. One of these whistle-blowers was Margaret Ceconie, who sent anonymous messages to the SEC alerting this body to the fraudulent financial practices of Enron.

Sometimes we ourselves have to feel the consequences of a labor issue before we are ready to act. This past Friday I heard a report on the wage differential between men and women in Virginia, and it was not good news! A study by the Commonwealth Institute revealed a shocking gap in the pay differential between men and women in similar jobs with similar education, and the differential was greater the more education a woman had! When I heard this, I was outraged for about a day and half! And then I started to wonder about the pay gaps that women in other countries face, and the whole complex issue of fair wages for workers in the “developing nations” of the world opened up. I wonder about my own participation in the creation of very inhumane workplaces, as I buy goods and food and services as cheaply as possible.

I’m not just talking about factories in China or tomato farms in South America or mines in countries like South Africa or Sierra Leone, as awful as those places may be and as concerned as we should be for the people who work there. I’m referring to workplaces here in the U.S., from the big-box stores to the slaughterhouses and chicken processing plants and the fast food industry. How can people who are making the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour provide a decent life for themselves — let alone a family? How many low-wage people are forced to work a second job, how many families juggle child care, worry over transportation, go full steam on four hours of sleep day after day to make ends meet? How many people work at jobs that are hazardous to their health or expose them to grave dangers day after day? How many of us know people who live with such harsh realities?

Labor Day might be a very good time for us to look at the issue of class and the very important differences between UUs and much of America. I want to bring this to you not because I think that we are awful snooty people, but because we look at our work through a very different lens than many Americans use. Most of us have the great joy of doing work that is a reflection of what we care most about in life-our passions, and dreams. We have been able, though good fortune and circumstance to heed the words of Joseph Campbell and “follow our bliss.”

But for many Americans, work has nothing to do with bliss, or choice, or self-expression. It’s simply a way to put food on the table and pay the bills. In the words of Doug Muder who wrote an article “Not My Father’s Religion” that was published in the Fall 2007 UU World,

“Unitarian Universalism has a class problem. We rarely discuss it, and when we do, we often focus on the very poor: the homeless, panhandlers, people on welfare. But we also have a problem with the working class, particularly the ones suffering from what Marx called alienation. If you’re a skilled craftsperson and like to work with your hands, you might be a UU. But if you make a living by renting your muscles and selling your time — permanently, not just until your novel gets published — you probably aren’t.”

Muder believes that the average working Joe and Jane would never be attracted to our way of the spirit because we have such a rarified view of life that doesn’t speak to their experience. That may be, but surely we can becomes allies and advocates.

What can we do to make their workplace more humane? We can pay attention to and lobby for laws that improve wages and working conditions — even at a cost to ourselves. At this moment there is a bill sitting in committee that would strengthen OSHA and the fines and punishments it would dish out for work-safety violations. It’s known as HR 2067: Protecting America’s Workers Act. We need to encourage our Representatives to get this bill out of committee and out for a vote.

We can support agencies that help working families by providing services, such as low-cost child care like our local Valley Interfaith Child Care agency, and local after-school programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs of the New River Valley, the Free Clinic, the Interfaith food Pantry.

We can find ways to break class barriers through face-to-face projects and creating opportunities to address common issues. One grand opportunity is working with our local literacy volunteers. Another is being involved with organizations like NAACP and taking the time to really get to know people who sit around the table with us so that we can come to understand something of their lives, their needs, their dreams for their children.

On this labor day, I’d ask that take some time to remember the women of Lawrence Massachusetts and all the others who have worked for better opportunities for those who earn their bread with their time and their muscles. Let us remember them with the intention that we will be part of the solutions, solutions that can help create a more humane world for them — a world of not just bread, but roses too.

May it be so.