Working
poor need a living wage
By
William G. Sinkford and Charlie Clements
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/26/06
Copyright (c) William G. Sinkford and Charlie
Clements
There
are more than 300 verses in the Bible that express
God's concern for the poor. The principle of tzedakah,
or "charity," is central to Judaism.
Zakat, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, dictates
that we provide for those in need. Gandhi called
poverty the "worst form of violence."
Generosity, charity and basic kindness to others
are fundamental tenets of each of the world's
major religions, but so, too, is the call for
justice. We know that Martin Luther King Jr. took
the inspiration for his call to "Let justice
flow like water" directly from the Book of
Amos.
Given how universal these principles are, we as
people of faith are appalled by the fact that,
amidst such plenty, more than 650,000 Missourians
live in poverty, nearly 230,000 of them children.
These are the working poor, the people who live
each day with little hope of getting ahead in
the struggle to survive.
We 5,000 delegates of the Unitarian Universalist
Association of Congregations and the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee, having gathered
in St. Louis last week for our national convention,
are moved to speak to this injustice. For 171
years, Unitarian Universalists have had a congregation
in St. Louis bearing witness to the needs and
the rights of the city's less privileged residents.
We are proud to give continuity to this heritage
with our presence here these past few days.
With the help of our local members, we have had
the honor of seeing St. Louis through the eyes
of some of its working people. Their energy keeps
the economy humming. They are raising the next
generation of St. Louisans, yet they live every
day in poverty, toiling away for an average wage
of $7 per hour in the hope that their children
might share in society's plenty.
We did not acquire our commitment to a just wage
when we arrived in St.
Louis. UUSC's economic justice program supports
the struggle for economic rights from Santa Fe,
N.M., to the backstreets of Nairobi, Kenya.
As so often is the case, those who received us
in St. Louis have done so as ambassadors of hope.
The very janitors and other workers with whom
we met are working together with community supporters
of the local Jobs with Justice coalition and others
as part of an unprecedented effort to help win
better wages and health care coverage for workers
throughout the St. Louis region. If successful,
it could help thousands of low-wage workers in
the greater St. Louis area earn a better living
for themselves and their families.
This November, Missourians may have the opportunity
to vote for a ballot
measure that would raise the state's minimum wage
from $5.15 to $6.50 per hour. It has been nine
years since low-wage workers in the state had
an increase in their pay. The current minimum
wage is a poverty wage. A full-time minimum wage
worker makes only $10,712 a year. For a single
mom with two children, that is nearly $5,000 below
the poverty line. This initiative wouldn't solve
all of her problems, but it would give that mother
and thousands like her a little more help as she
struggles to make ends meet.
In 1964, the UUA adopted a resolution stating
that "poverty, in the midst of
plenty, [is] intolerable to the religious conscience
and incompatible with our principles of economic
justice." Forty-two years later, these words
are as profound and as central to our articles
of faith as they were when they were first stated.
As people of faith, it is our responsibility to
turn these words into action.
Rev. William G. Sinkford is president of the
Unitarian Universalist Association. Charlie Clements
is president of the Unitarian Universalist Service
Committee.
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