wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] 'What happened to our fervor?'

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Note #8219 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

'What happened to our fervor?'
04209
May 4, 2004

'What happened to our fervor?'

Religious leaders urged to question ethics of globalization

by Debra Wagner
Director of Communications
Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey

PORT NEWARK, NJ - As economic globalization moves more and more white-collar
jobs to foreign countries, justice advocates, academics and labor leaders are
sounding an alarm, urging religious leaders to lead a national dialogue on
the effects of globalization.

"The grass beneath our feet is burning. Jobs are rapidly disappearing from
our communities," the Rev. Charles W. "Chuck" Rawlings told 65 interfaith
leaders during a seminar on "Preserving Local Communities Amid the Storms of
Globalization" on April 27 at the International Seafarers' Center here. "We
need to find a shared moral language in order to create an ethical voice in
the debate over globalization."

Rawlings, a minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), is president of the
New Jersey division of the United Nations Association USA, which co-sponsored
the event with the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey.

"What happened to our fervor?" asked Monsignor John Gilchrist, pastor of Holy
Cross (Roman Catholic) Church in Harrison, NJ, chair of the Newark
Archdiocesan Commission for Inter-Religious Affairs. "If this were the 1970s,
the room would be overflowing with religious people taking the lead in
transformational social justice. Can it be that we are only focused on
ourselves?"

Labor and advocacy experts presented a gloomy picture of globalization,
predicting that it will continue eroding the quality of life of people of the
middle and professional classes and weaken government safeguards of the
welfare of already marginalized poor and immigrant workers.

"Who would believe that we have to fight the battle for a safe workplace when
we already have the laws?" asked Richard Cunningham, executive director of
New Labor, a New Brunswick, NJ, community group that represents Latino
workers. "People are working high-risk positions for low wages. Injury and
death rates are rising among these low-paying jobs."

According to Eileen Appelbaum, a labor economist who runs the Center for
Women and Work at Rutgers University, 300,000 high tech jobs have been
"outsourced" so far, but "it happened so quickly that it is not a stretch to
count the other 14 million U.S. high-tech jobs in grave jeopardy. Look at
what happened to manufacturing jobs."

The outlook is bleak. According to U.S. Labor Department statistics, the 10
occupations expected to grow fastest through 2012 include seven that are
considered low-paying - retail sales people, customer-service
representatives, food prep and service workers, cashiers, janitors and
cleaners, waiters and waitresses and nursing aides, orderlies, and
attendants.  Only three-registered nurses, post-secondary teachers, and
general operations managers, require college degrees.

"All of this leads to increased anxiety among white-collar workers,"
Appelbaum said. "Families suffer. People are afraid to ask for time off to
take care for a sick child or elderly parent. Workers take pay cuts to keep
medical benefits or exchange health care coverage for more wages."

Appelbaum noted that skilled workers are facing uncertainty while
corporations are enjoying their highest profits. According to the Center for
Economic and Public Research, corporate profits have grown substantially
since 2000, cutting into employee compensation. Meanwhile, corporate
reinvestment is at its lowest point ever.

"Even the great boon of the '90s was really a hoax," said John Shure,
president of New Jersey Policy Perspective. "Local governments offered
incentive packages to corporations where many pay little or no taxes. Median
wages in New Jersey actually declined. Wages fell for everyone without a
college diploma. Today, half of New Jersey's Latinos and one-third of its
African-American population do not earn a living wage."

Shure said faith-based groups can strengthen other labor advocates because
they can "play to peoples' noblest sentiments."

"We live in a culture that exalts the rugged individual," he said. "If you
haven't made it economically, it's your fault. Our task is to return to a
sense that we are in this together. That won't be easy, because we will need
to fight individual greed that permeates our government, culture, and
consumer nature."

Tanny Mukhopadhyay, a policy specialist for the United Nations, urged
religious leaders to promote international documents on labor rights, such as
the International Labor Organization's Standards of Aspiration.

"The spectrum of debate worldwide has shifted dramatically to the right,"
Mukhopadhyay said. "What most of us knew as the left is now the center.
Unless there is a way for people on the ground to network through
organizations, global economic forces will look only for low corporate
overhead and low labor costs."

Labor has been weakened in recent decades. Only 12 percent of workers belong
to unions today, compared to nearly 40 percent after World War II, according
to Alan Kauffman, an official of the Communications Workers of America.

The connection between globalization and church finances was not lost on
those who took part in the Port Newark seminar. Churches' endowment income
and pension plans are linked to the revenues generated by a stock market
dominated by global corporations.

The Rev. Geoffrey Curtiss, rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Hoboken,
NJ, encouraged church officials and members to become involvedin "established
networks of social justice."

"We all need to get involved," he said. "People of faith need to build
another constituency for social change that builds community and does not
reward greed."

The United Nations Association of the United States of America is catalyst
for dialogue on global issues. The Seamen's Church Institute of New York and
New Jersey, an ecumenical agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church,
advocates for the personal, professional and spiritual well-being of
mariners.

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