Take Action Against Wage Theft

I am a Board member for Interfaith Worker Justice. The organization works with the most vulnerable, lowest paid workers to protect their rights. IWJ is organizing a national day to fight wage theft (employers not paying workers what they are owed):

On November 19th, Agencies, organizations, and individuals will join together in taking action to fight Wage Theft. Some will join in delegations to unethical employers, while others will participate in demonstrations and other actions to raise awareness and support for those who have had wages stolen.

If interested in joining in the National Day of Action or more information on the National Day of Action, please contact Cara Gold at [email protected] or (773)728-8400 x 34.

What I notice in the IWJ world is an almost total lack of middle class and affluent class support. This is a low to the ground organization doing unlovely work with often uneducated workers. No glamor and no "philanthropic travel" through blighted neighborhoods. Why is it that those with money would not consider engagement? "Demonstrations and other actions." Recently, for the first time in decades I found myself carrying a sign and singing hyms in the streets with IWJ leaders, mostly clerics of all faiths who take "compassion" to require acts of solidarity with those who have least.

Comments

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We know and believe because the likes of Reagan and Bush told us that if we religiously shop with the aim of indulging our most frivolous wishes, wealth will trickle down, down, down, fertilizing the subsoil, giving the healthy brown shrubs and tubers a shot at a day in the sun. Our sun.

[twitter.com/ddenizen]

They would have to abandon the mythology that the poor deserve it and recognize that most people would be just fine if they system were just, which it isn't.

Fairness would be a nice start.

[Phil Cubeta]

The trickle down includes philanthropy, I guess. But when asked why on their board are so few wealthy people or people connected to wealth, the ED of IWJ points out that generally wealthy people do not support union organizing, or worker centers that make trouble for dishonest employers. I have asked, "Where did 'radical chic' go? Where are the 60s style activists who took pride in cross class alliances? Where is the old MLK or Bobby Kennedy coalition? Why has Obama-followers not flocked to orgs like IWJ in order to build cross class alliances?" Because we live in a "post-racial society"? Because we now have symbolism (black man as President) that completes the MLK saga in a nice way, without conflict? Because Rev Wright and IWJ are atavism, throwbacks to the old ways of confrontation, agitation, organizing, and moral pressure? Because we know that organizing the poor in a flat world will just accelerate the movement of jobs overeseas? Unions as the reason GM is failing? In any case, the Board of IWJ is drawn from clerics, many of whom have taken vows of poverty. I am not a cleric, nor poor by choice. I guess I am there to help build bridges to advisor networks that include wealthy people. The wealthiest in IWJs database seem to be attorneys who do class action and labor law suits. Those too are confrontational levers for social change. Few CEOs, closely held business owners, or managers are going to give to an org like IWJ, unless out of remorse. Their kids may turn into limousine liberals, but only if the family fails to, as we say in the biz, "pass on its values with its valuables."