Religious groups, labor secretary join in call to end worker abuse

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New York, and Washington.

Contact: Joretta Purdue (Release # 538) (202)546-8722

WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- Robert B. Reich, secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, praised religious organizations here Oct. 22 for their work to eradicate sweatshops around the world.

At least six United Methodist board staff members were among the representatives of religious groups meeting with Reich to express condemnation of exploitive labor practice and to urge the buying public to choose their clothing purchases carefully.

"The religious leaders joining us in this effort have pledged to do everything possible to remind Americans that this is a moral issue and that Americans have a moral responsibility to do everything they can to ensure that workers are treated fairly and with dignity," Reich told the press after the consultation.

He said the Labor Department is the "enforcer" of the nation's labor laws but the congregations are the "reinforcers." Reich added, "The government cannot do it alone."

The Rev. Pharis Harvey, a United Methodist missionary who is executive director of the International Labor Rights Fund, also spoke at the press conference together with leaders from four Jewish, Baptist and Catholic organizations.

Representing the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, Harvey observed, "Our historic faith journey began in a general strike against the sweatshops of Egypt. Our Methodist societies got their start as the conscience of the early industrial revolution in England."

He continued by pointing to efforts of the Methodist Church during the Depression to make working conditions a top priority, as expressed in the denomination's Social Creed. It said:

"We stand for reasonable hours of labor, for just wages, for a fair day's work for a fair day's wage, for fair working conditions for periods of leisure for those who work, and for an equitable division of the product of industry."

Harvey's quote also included the church's expression of support for the right to collective organizing and bargaining.

Now, as the world prepares for a new century, Harvey said, sweatshop conditions have returned to America and to labor in much of the global economy.

"We ignore these conditions at the peril of our own well being, our own moral integrity, our own faith and calling to be 'our neighbors' keepers,'" he said.

The United Methodist Church is beginning a quadrennial emphasis on workers, he reported, and that affords the denomination an opportunity to educate members about "the scourge of sweatshop labor."

Addressing the labor secretary, Harvey said that church members look forward to working to reform trade policies, restore budgets for enforcement of labor laws and ratify "international conventions that protect the rights of workers [to bring] our laws into compliance with international standards."

The labor secretary also recognized the denomination's work for justice, naming United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits as an entity that is using its leverage as an investor to have "a powerful and dramatic effect on the garment industry."

The Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, in a statement distributed at the press conference, mentioned the pension agency's NIKE shareholder resolution concerning working conditions and reports that the agency is considering action against Walt Disney, WalMart and Reebok.

Fassett noted that the denomination has been calling for the eradication of sweatshops and advocating "safe and decent working conditions" since its 1908 Social Creed. He said the Board of Church and Society is part of several coalitions and campaigns working against sweatshops and child labor.

Other United Methodists who attended the 45-minute meeting with Reich were L.J. Hopkins of the Board of Global Ministries Women's Division, and three Board of Church and Society staff members, who also advocate on this and related issues -- Jane Hull Harvey, Mark Harrison and the Rev. Eliezer Valentin- Castanon.