wfn.org | United Methodists plan global consultation with workers

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 9, 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue (202)546-8722 Washington
10-71B{583}

By United Methodist News Service

Church-organized labor groups. Unemployment. Immigrant workers. Wages.
Plant closings.

Those are some of the topics that will be addressed at a global
consultation sponsored by the 
United Methodist Church Nov. 13-15 in Atlanta. The United Methodist
Concern for Workers 
Task Force has organized the event to bring together Methodists from
around the world to 
address issues facing workers and the unemployed.

The consultation on "The United Methodist Church and Working People:
Joining the Struggle 
for Workplace Peace and Justice" will examine local and international
work issues in a world 
increasingly driven by a global economy. Workshops will tackle issues
such as globalization, the 
environment and jobs, sweatshops, women in the labor force and faith in
the marketplace.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman has been invited to speak on child
labor, and Linda 
Chavez Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, will open the
consultation. Stewart 
Acuff, president of the Central Labor Council of Atlanta, will speak on
workplace peace and 
justice. A panel of  Methodists will discuss worker struggles worldwide.

A banquet will honor United Methodist Bishop Jesse DeWitt, an advocate
of labor rights, and the 
Rev. Joseph Lowery, a United Methodist clergyman and retired head of the
Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference. The 50th anniversary of the U.N. Universal
Declaration of Human 
Rights and the 90th anniversary of the United Methodist Social Creed
will also be observed. The 
Social Creed addresses labor concerns and has been credited by some as a
driving force behind 
the first child labor laws in the United States.
# # # 

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/