name, pronoun(s), organization, geographic location, expectations or what you hope to learn from this webinar?

Bridie Roberts, She/Hers, California, UNITE HERE Local 11 and Hollywood United Methodist Church

Abdi,Awood Center,Minnesota

The Rev. Jon Stratton (he/him). Trinity Episcopal Church St. Louis.

Jay Deck, Virginia Education Association, Harrisonburg, VA

Michael Livingston, Riverside Church, NYC

Regan McBride (she/her), UFCW21, Seattle

Patrick Carolan Maryland vote common good

Joerg Rieger (he/er), Professor, Vanderbilt University, Director Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice

Jeff Korgen (he, him, y’all) evaluation consultant, Catholic Campaign for Human Development

Joe McCartin, he/him, Kalmanovitz Initiative, Georgetown University

Connor, he/him/his, Fordham Faculty United/SEIU Local 200United, New York City

Clayton Sinyai, Catholic Labor Network

Sarah Morgan (she/her/hers), ILO-USA, Washington, DC

Marilyn Sneiderman, she hers, Washington DC Rutgers Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) and BCG

Kathleen Maas Weigert, Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership. Chicago, IL.

Yusuf Barzinji, He/him pronouns, Organizing Specialist for Fairfax Education Association, hope to learn how to best organize religious places of worship.

Sam Wohns (he/him); Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Durham, NC/occupied Eno land

David Kociemba, East Coast Organizer for the AAUP, hailing from the great state of Massachusetts. I’m hoping for guidance on how to bring faith leaders into the fight for equitable and democratic campuses

Rev. Francisco Garcia, Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @ Vanderbilt Divinity School; BCG Advisory Committee

Valerie Copeland, she/her, Boston, ways faith communities can partner with labor unions to improve the lives of working people

Andrea Zanetti, SHe/Her SEIU 1021. Director for North Coast Region of California from Marin County to Oregon Boarder

Rev. Doug Mork, he/him, Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis

Anna, she/her, AFT, Atlanta, just hear to learn what is working and what the challenges are in coalition building of this kind.

Dan Galvin (he/him), professor at Northwestern University

Kermit Moore, he, Memphis A Philip Randolph Instiyute

Cheryl Miller - Teamsters 117, Union Rep - She/Hers - looking for positive partnerships!

Josh Jordan, he/him/his. Faculty, Fordham. Chair, Fordham Faculty United/SEIU Local 200United

Adam Clark, he/him, PA State Edu Ass'n - hope to learn effective approaches for community bargaining

Suzanne Wall, she/her/sister, Mass Teachers Assoc, union organizer, on land of the Wampanoag people (MA)

Spencer Shimek (he/him), incoming Master's student in Labor Studies at Rutgers, no union (yet!)

Saqib Bhatti, he/him, Action Center on Race and the Economy, Kentucky - hoping to learn about groundbreaking campaigns

Vonda McDaniel she/her Nashville Central Labor Council of Nashville/Middle TN

Candace Lilyquist- She/Her - Organizational Specialist, NEA, Arlington, VA

A Philip Randolph Institute

Anton McParland. SEIU Local 500.

Rigo Valdez, he/him, MLK Labor/UFCW770

Rafael Morataya He/Him ; American Federation of Teachers , Community Coordinator for West Coast

Michael Flores0Castaneda, he/him, Human Rights Consultant, California Teachers Association - eager to leran about community partnerships

Hi all, Kasi (she/her), WA State Labor Council, on unceded Duwamish and Muckleshoot territories (aka Kent, WA)

Kimberly Adams (she/her), President, Fairfax Education Association, Fairfax, VA - improving students' learning conditions as they are our employees' working conditions.

yes!

Murph Brown, she series, MTA-Quincy, Mass. lea& information

Luis Caraballo-Burgos, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Boston... everything Betty is talking about with educator local unions.

Emma Galvin, she/her, Alliance for Fair Food/Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Immokalee Florida

Brian Eldridge (he/him), California Teachers Assoc, I am not a religious person, so looking to learn how to connecting labor and faith.

Taylor Baker, she/her, Student at George Mason University

Norine Gutekanst, retired CTU

Robin Harvey, she/her, NLRB field attorney (here in a personal capacity)

Emmanuel Flores, he/him/his, DePaul University Labor Education Center, Chicago, IL, I hope to learn the intersection of faith and labor

Bob King, Retired UAW & Active LEO AFT MI

Makeba Walls-Robinson, she/her, Caucus of Working Educators, PFT, Phila. Pa.

Chap Clark he/him MSW, LA Voice, Civic Engagement Organizer, Los Angeles

please be blunt and real!!

Thank you

in about five minutes we will open it up to Q&A— please start writing your questions in the chat and we will get to as many as possible!

Yes! This is how we will move forward

Question: How have you been able to engage faith leaders outside of the religious left and what was most effective about your strategy?

Are there examples of faith-labor alliances in higher ed with faculty unions? Are there specific obstacles to such a coalition?

Francisco and Bridie, both of you have used words like “authentic” to describe effective relationships between labor and faith. Do you have examples of what inauthentic relationships between labor and faith looking like? What doesn’t work as far as authenticity goes when beginning relationships between labor and faith if currently no relationship exists?

This is great! I would love to connect for TN

Alex Tindal Wiesendanger has an excellent book "Seeds of Justice: Organizing Your Church to Transform the World" that helps Pastors think about activating a church. https://www.christianbook.com/seeds-justice-organizing-church-transform-world/alex-wiesendanger/9781626983656/pd/983656

How have you addressed the power differential challenges of working in a mostly white majority faith context with mostly BIPOC workers who are organizing

Hello all my name is Melissa Powell Buffalo NY better organizing skills and build more leadership skills

yessss

Same @Jeff's q

Yes strategic

Here are some resources on religion and labor from the Wendland-Cook Program at Vanderbilt: https://www.religionandjustice.org/labor-and-religion; and here: https://www.religionandjustice.org/interventions-forum-faith-class-and-labor; and a book on the topic: https://chalicepress.com/products/unified-we-are-a-force

thanks Joerg, folks should definitely check out Wendland-Cook!! And for those who have to leave on the hour, here’s like the BCG website:

https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/

and attached here is a memo with concrete examples of “common good” bargaining demands:

This is great, friends. Sorry I have to leave.

do you find that there are people of faith that don't want to participate in unions? They consider it too worldly

can you talk about the importance of language is. I gave a talk a couple years ago in western Pa on environmental justice. I talked all about the Green New deal without once mentioning the GND. At the end these folks who would be considered conservative Catholics were all in agreement.

https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Bargaining-Demands-Memo-Long-12.2020.pdf

Gracias!!! Great Job!!! ana@gamaliel.org

Rent a Pastor approach

Love the “authenticity” here!!

We need to build the relationships before we need each other.

amen to that Ana

Great meeting, sorry I have to leave

This is one of the many gifts of BCG, this anchoring in long term shared values that are beyond individual labor fights and look at the whole person and the whole community

Exactly!

Amen to that Ana! And you have been leading on this! Agree, Doug!!

I think its also important to approach new relationships with an open mind to new perspectives. Try to avoid seeking confirmation for pre-determined outcomes.

Thank you for the compliment CJ :)

RaCarol Woodard email: racarol@theequityalliance.orghttps://theequityalliance.org/

This is really great. The sabbatical project I am working with is about this very topic. I am documenting the faith/belief groups across the nation. Plus, looking to connect some of the Red for Ed Campaigns and the role of the faith/belief groups and how they were connected. It would be great to connect with anyone who is interested in discussing this with me. clilyquist@nea.org or 202-431-6715

For some on the labor side with little or only negative experiences of faith communities, just meeting those communities that value justice can be transformative. It's the same way for faith folks with no knowledge or negative experiences of unions.

Really helpful Bridie

I really appreciate this discussion. I am just at the beginning of a relationship with the IAF, which is predominately full of faith based partners. and we don't "want" anything yet except to be one of their partners.

sorry to leave early, another meeting to attend. thanks everyone. great info. and great stories.

we’ve drafted a “principles of partnership” document— attached here, and would love to here your thoughts on what stands out and what is missing! please put yourself on stack in the chat if you have thoughts you want to share

thank you

Bridie, that's important for me: misinformation and anti-union

Thank you for this excellent conversation; I have to drop off. Appreciate your varied work and experiences!

Please give us any feedback on draft principles

Would panelists want to speak to the power of clergy participating in union non-violent civil disobedience actions, as part of a contract campaign or strike or lock-out?

For people looking to work with networks that are already built and functional (hopefully) - check out Industrial Areas Foundation groups. My experience has been with WIN - Washington Interfaith Network is and has been organizing in the Washington, DC area for years. https://www.windc-iaf.org/

is rampant because there has been a well funded 40 year campaign by right wing to discredit labor movement combined with lack of understanding on how our economy actually works. How important is it to educate faith leaders and their congregations about all of this?

Thanks, Bridie, helpful thoughts.

So important Holly!

Helpful everyone, have to jump but great conversation. Thanks especially to all the organizers who pulled it together!

@Steven Ashby: That is super important! Its one of the gifts of the faith community.

Thanks for joining!

Absolutely right, Abdi, great!

I absolutely LOVED this :)

https://gamaliel.org/ Gamaliel Network is a national organization with a faith/labor tradition. NOAH in Nashville works with the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee & Faith Coalition for the Common Good works with Springfield & Central Illinois Trades & Labor Council

Agree, Rigo!

Thanks so much for joining us friends. This will be continued! La lucha sigue!

Yes Rigo!!!

https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/

Thanks, this has been great!

Thank you!!

That is right. We belong in the streets

Thank you to all the speakers

Thank you all

Thank you all. This has been helpful and inspiring.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Such an inspiring and thought provoking conversation. Thank you everyone!

Thx very much! Excellent!

Thanks, everyone - this has been a great event!

Thank you so much, everyone!!!

Sorry we didn’t get to all questions, but let’s keep the convo and organizing ideas going!

https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/

Faith work is organizing!!!

Great job! 👍🏽😊

https://www.religionandjustice.org/

Sign up for our listserve….join our activist community

This was incredibly helpful for me. I want MORE. Well done.

Really appreciated the perspective and want to share this context and apply it in our contract and Steelworkers strike in Natrona Heights, Pa.

Thanks, KB!! Francisco, and the whole team!!

faith groups are unions of believers - yes, let's do this again soon

Great job everyone!

thanks very much!!

Working with our union members in their own faith organizations is powerful.

Thanks for a great event!

Wonderful conversation

Thank you.