This past weekend churches and synagogues across Maine featured guest labor speakers and included messages of solidarity, equity and racial and economic justice in sermons as part of the AFL-CIO’s Labor in the Pulpit, on the Bimah and in the Minbar program.
“I think there have been some very nice beginnings,” said Mike Seavey, the Maine AFL-CIO’s Labor & Faith Liaison. “People have taken some initiative on their own and have done some really good things and I’m really excited about it.”
The Labor in the Pulpit program uses Labor Day as a unique opportunity for religious communities and unions to come together in partnership. Each year, interfaith and ecumenical organizations, local religious leaders, state federations and central labor councils work together to recruit union leaders and congregations to participate as special guest speakers at religious services. For the past few years, Seavey, who served as a Catholic priest for 35 years, has been connecting with religious leaders throughout the state about incorporating labor values into Labor Day sermons.
Seavey noted that labor and faith organizations have a long history of working together and sharing values of social justice, equality, the dignity of all people, racial and economic justice, and fair treatment in the workplace.
“Faith communities and labor unions share values, common concerns: Both build community and both hold human dignity for all workers and all employers. We both stand for simple justice for all people: God’s creation meant to provide basic human needs for all people,” said Seavey at Sunday’s Service at the Winthrop Congregational church. “We spend large amounts of time at our workplaces. Therefore, the working conditions, wages and benefits have a major impact on our lives, the lives of our families, communities, and places of worship. These are moral issues.”
Seavey said Christians should be particularly concerned about the most vulnerable and exploited laborers including undocumented workers and children, noting that there is currently an organized push to loosen child laws in several states, including Maine.
Jason J. Shedlock, President of the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council and Regional Organizer for the Laborers' International Union, delivered Labor Day remarks at the First Parish Church in Portland. In addition, congregants at Adas Yoshuron Synagogue in Rockland and the First Assembly (Assemblies of God) in Bangor provided Labor in the Pulpit and on the Bimah to their faith leaders which were incorporated into their sermons. The Maine Council of Churches also included some Labor Day material Seavey developed for Protestant churches in its newsletter.
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