Worker Rights Center

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The Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin ( ICWJ ), established in Madison in 1999, is a coalition of individuals, religious congregations, interfaith bodies, labor unions, and community organizations concerned about economic and worker justice. Our mission is to educate and mobilize the religious and labor communities of South Central Wisconsin on worker rights issues, to actively build relationships between faith and labor groups, and to support the rights of workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining. In November, we opened the doors to the Workers Rights Center, a volunteer-run resource center for low-wage and immigrant workers. The Workers Rights Center is now an independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ). Find out more about the Workers Rights Center. In addition to the success of the Workers Rights Center, the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice continues to hold educational events throughout the community. Our English and Spanish Wisconsin Workers Rights Manual are available to individuals and unions throughout Wisconsin. We hold periodic trainings in Spanish and English to instruct low-wage workers of their rights. In January, we held a training on worker rights geared to social service providers. This Labor Day, we will again bring the ICWJ message to religious institutions in our annual Labor in the Pulpit Project. Additionally, the ICWJ has been involved in several workplace union campaigns, including aiding the unionizing effort at Oakwood Village ( East and West ), and supporting UFCW in their strike against Tyson Foods. The Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin currently has two paid staff: Rabbi Renee Bauer, the ICWJ Director, and Geri Girard, the bookkeeper. There is a long historic tradition of labor and religious cooperation. From the time of the earliest textile worker organizing in New England, 150 years ago, to the bitter labor struggles during the Great Depression, to the Civil Rights movement and the Farm Workers' organizing efforts of the recent past, various labor organizations and religious communities have worked side by side for social and economic justice. In the 19th Century, these coalitions fought for the right to have public meetings in company-owned towns, for an 8 hour work day, for wages above the level of starvation, and for the right to organize a labor union. In the 20th Century, these coalitions expanded their goals to include minimum health and safety conditions in the workplace, retirement pensions and social security, equal treatment under the law, and voting rights for all Americans. Religious communities are natural allies of labor unions. All of the major religions in the U.S. have deeply held views on the need for social justice. The Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, includes dozens of laws covering economic and social ethics and actions. Catholics have a long history of social justice teachings including Papal pronouncements and social action movements led by church reformers such as Dorothy Day. Virtually all Protestant denominations have similar teachings in their founding documents as well as recent resolutions. Islam, now the third largest faith in the U.S., includes broad social justice precepts and guidelines in the Koran. The Buddhist, Hindu, and Native American religious communities also espouse principles of justice and community. Why is there a need to revive the tradition of labor and religious cooperation? Very simply, the gains made in the past have been seriously eroded and are constantly under attack.