Dear Friends,
As global turmoil continues to dominate headlines, we pray for peace across the world (because we must). And we work to create justice here in our backyard (because we can).
Indeed, CLUE supporters are engaging in the vital local work of organizing for just and fair workplaces all across Southern California.
Because the work is long and often exhausting, we hope you will join us and refill your spiritual well at our 2022 Architects of Justice Awards. It’s a wonderful opportunity to salute and be inspired by normal people who are demanding and making change.
If you read nothing else, read this:
- Mark your calendars and join us May 19, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. for OC’s Architects of Justice awards. tickets and sponsorships are now available for this inspiring evening to lift up changemakers and benefit CLUE. [read more]
- ACTION ALERT: Show your support for grocery workers [#grocery] as they struggle for better wages and fair scheduling. Just take a selfie in front of your Kroger and post on social media. [read more] #standwithgroceryworkers
- ACTION ALERT: Two Los Angeles initiatives hope to improve working conditions for hotel housekeepers and address the hotel industry’s impact on affordable housing. You can learn more and help to get them on the ballot. [read more]
- OC Clergy rallied for bus drivers last month as they sought and won break protections and wage increases. [read more]
Read on for news of current campaigns and opportunities to join them. Or click here for the entire newsletter.
Thank you for being a part of the CLUE community.
In faith,
Your friends at CLUE
Los Angeles
Grocery Workers across So Cal continue to demand decent pay and fair scheduling even as they ponder a decision to strike.
A January 2022 Economic Roundtable report highlighted the desperate plights of grocery workers including low-wages and last-minute scheduling that sends them scrambling to find childcare and transportation.
The study is a lot to digest, but the bottom line is this: Kroger (Ralphs/Food 4 Less) is extracting profit and exploiting workers to maximize CEO pay and shareholder returns.
Now UFCW 770 members are planning a strike vote to show Kroger they are serious: workplace injustice can no longer prevail. Grocery workers are essential workers and deserve dignity.
You can show support for grocery workers in your community. Just take a selfie in front of your Kroger grocery store, tag @UFCW770 and say “I #standwithgroceryworkers.”
The next week will be an important time to show solidarity.
Sign up for Action Alerts and receive updates!
CLUE Joins UNITE HERE’s RAISE LA campaign for workers’ rights and housing!
Hotel workers and volunteers, preparing to knock on doors across Los Angeles and gather signatures to put justice on the ballot this fall.
This Spring, CLUE is proud to be joining UNITE HERE! Local 11 and a host of community allies in the fight to raise the standard for all hotel workers and to build a better Los Angeles for all our neighbors!
The first initiative–The Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance–ensures that housekeepers receive fair compensation for heavy workloads, gives them panic buttons and other security measures, covers more workers under the hotel minimum wage law, and more.
The second initiative–The Responsible Hotel Ordinance–seeks to mitigate the negative impact on housing of hotels. It protects housing from being displaced by new hotels, requires hotels to make unused rooms available to unhoused people through approved programs, and strengthens hotel licensing requirements and oversight by the City Council.
There are two ways you can support this transformative campaign:
- Faith leaders can endorse the initiatives, and commit to gather signatures from your congregants and networks who are registered to vote in the City of LA!
- Anyone can volunteer to canvass (or recruit your networks to canvass) with the union! Sign up at bit.ly/raise-la-community
Contact Matthew Hom at [email protected].
Jon Donaire Workers Ratify New Agreement
After a 103-day-strike, hundreds of bakery and dessert workers at the Jon Donaire plant in Santa Fe Springs ratified a new contract that provides “significant wage increases, maintains their excellent health insurance, and improves working conditions.”
As the brave workers marked their 100th day on strike, CLUE Interim Executive Director joined them a county-wide rally and car caravan to offer a blessing of support to the workers.
You can sign up for CLUE Action Alerts to stay informed about actions of public witness like this.
Meet Our Newest Faith-Rooted Organizer!
Welcome Matthew Hom! Matthew is CLUE’s newest Faith-Rooted Organizer, working with CLUE’s Westside and Los Angeles organizing committees. He’s a seasoned activist and accomplished scholar. He came to CLUE because he “feels called by his Jewish faith and his Chinese American identity to help build a multiracial democracy in Los Angeles in solidarity with workers, immigrants, and our diverse communities.” Read more about Matthew here.
Orange County
OC Bus Drivers win higher wages and workplace dignity without having to strike!
A year after negotiations began and the day before a strike was set to begin, OC bus drivers reached an agreement with their employer, the Orange County Transit Authority, that won higher wages and dignity at work without walking off the job.
The bus drivers (all Teamsters Local 952 members) had been advocating for reasonable meal and restroom breaks and wage increases. Bravo to these courageous workers for staying strong in their struggle.
As negotiations entered the 11th hour, faith leaders and community members rallied to support workers.
Now through April 24th, visit Neighborhood UCC in Laguna Beach for Allysen Allen’s “Piece-ful Protest.”
Allysen Allen’s powerful art exhibition was relocated after complaints over the artworks’ “controversial” content. The artist’s quilts are meditations on gun violence, global warming, misogyny, Black Lives Matter, immigration, human trafficking, LGBTQ rights, and other pressing social issues.
We hope you’ll visit Neighborhood Congregational Church, led by Pastor Rodrick Echols to view Allen’s powerful artworks
Exhibit dates: Continuing through April 24, 2022
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, Noon to 4, and by appointment*
Location: Bridge Hall, Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St. Ann’s Drive, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Closing Reception: Sunday, April 24, 2022, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Nearly 100 letters were sent to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, urging him to restart hot food service for incarcerated people in OC Jails.
Incarceration does not justify being fed moldy sandwiches and rotting fruit. That’s why nearly 100 faith leaders and community members have called upon Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes to reinstate hot meals at OC jails.
Everyone deserves dignity, even behind bars.
Until hot food and a variety of fresh, nutritious food begins being served, we call on the faith community to please keep sending letters to Sheriff Barnes calling for him to treat the incarcerated population in OC with the dignity they deserve.
You can add your name to the faith community letter to Sheriff Barnes by clicking here.
Santa Ana’s Walnut and Daisy Micro-Farm enters a new stage of development.
On March 13, CLUE and THRIVE Santa Community Land Trust (CLT) co-facilitated a presentation at Saint Matthew Ecumenical Catholic Church. We were invited to present during both Saint Matthew’s English-speaking mass and Spanish speaking mass to highlight the work of THRIVE’s first community-controlled project, the Walnut and Daisy Micro-farm, and shared how the faith community can get involved. At the end of the presentation, nearly 10 Saint Matthew’s members signed up to get involved with THRIVE’s micro-farm project.
You Are Invited
Architects of Giants – Thu, May 19, 2022
JOIN US FOR ARCHITECTS OF JUSTICE!
Thursday, May 19, 2022 | 5 PM Ingathering | 5:30 PM Broadcast | 6:30 PM Reception
Harbor Christian Church (Newport Beach)
& Streaming Online Everywhere!
The theme for the 2022 Architects of Justice Awards, “We are Building a New Way,” is a reminder that when we stand in solidarity, lifting up the dignity of workers and immigrants and demanding justice in the workplace, we win. And people’s lives are transformed.
The Architects of Justice Awards will bring together hundreds of diverse clergy and essential workers to hear stories of hope, faith, persistence, and victory in the struggle to create an economy that offers dignity and freedom for all.
We are excited to return in-person and honor the extraordinary work of honorees who will be announced shortly. You will be welcomed to the live broadcast event with live music beginning at 5 p.m. and enjoy a post-broadcast reception at 6:30.
Whether you sponsor, buy tickets, or just donate online, every gift you make helps to advocate for a just economy that works for all and protects those most vulnerable: low-wage workers.
All donations made are charitable contributions and benefit CLUE.
Giants of Justice – Thu, Oct 20, 2022
Save the Date for CLUE’s LA celebration of justice makers. You’ll be able to come in person or stream online. For now, mark your calendars!
Immigration
Inaugurating El Comitè
First El Comitè meeting on February 15, 2022
CLUE has begun to curate a space for spanish-speaking impacted faith leaders to freely express their ideas, strategies and convictions toward building a more just society. Attorney Karina Gutierrez, Maria Elena Perales from the Sisters of Saint Joseph, and Yesenia Altamirano from CHIRLA OC each spoke. It was a powerful 90-minute gathering of edification.
Email [email protected] for more information.
Solidarity is Sacred
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice educates, organizes, and mobilizes faith leaders and community members to walk with workers and immigrants in their struggles for good jobs, safe workplaces, and healthy communities.
We can accompany low-wage workers—mostly immigrants and communities of color—because people like you support an organized, connected interfaith movement for economic justice.
Please join the movement to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.
