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Hebrew Scripture Reading—Ecclesiastes 4: 1-12
Last year a group of researchers from various think tanks published a study on working conditions that was widely cited in the news. The central thesis of the research was that workplaces are failing to protect our nation’s workers. Based on a survey of over 4,000 workers from LA, Chicago, and New York, the study found that 26% had been paid less than a minimum wage during the previous week, while 76% of those who “worked more than 40 hours were not paid the legally required overtime.” The survey estimated that for full-time workers, an average of $2,634 was lost each year as a result of workplace violations.[i]
This morning I want to explore with you two questions that I believe are interrelated. The first question is who is going to stand up for workers. If the hyper-exploitation of workers by businesses is so widespread and if our government is currently failing to protect these workers, then who will say this has got to come to an end? The second question is where is God in all of this and where will God be, if and when, someone stands up?
In our scripture for today, the writer is befuddled by the misery of working life. There is no end to this work that never seems to provide enough reward. Working according to the writer is an “unhappy business.” I am reminded here of William Faulkner who once said, “You can’t eat for eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours a day—all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why [one] makes [oneself] and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.” Now, I know not all of us find our work to be unhappy. For many of us, it is instead a principle source of happiness because our work enables us to pursue our passions or gain a sense of satisfaction and esteem, but I think even for us happy persons, we can sympathize with those who toil without pleasure, those who can identify with the Advil commercial aimed at the person with a stressful job.
So, what is there for the unhappy worker when pills and happy hours are not enough? Our scripture offers an answer. It says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other.” The scripture goes on to say that having three is even better because then you have a cord that will not be “quickly broken.” What might this scripture mean for workers toiling in misery today? It might mean helping out the person who works at the desk next to yours. It might mean taking the risk of sticking up for a fellow cashier or clerk who is unfairly treated. It also might mean being a union member. At its most basic level, a union is about bringing workers together to support one another. If you think about it, the old labor motto “An injury to one is an injury to all” is strikingly similar to our scripture for today that says when one worker falls, the other will lift that worker up.
I realize that some members of our church may either have had negative experiences with union corruption and the like or have heard such stories. I am not arguing that all unions are ideally organized and operate without abuses. I would say the same thing if I were talking about churches. Bad things have happened, but in the end, we have to look at the core principles of unions at their best and the huge successes of these unions, just as our church cherishes the core principles of our faith and the tremendous victories for justice that churches have helped win in the past. If we look at the history of the labor movement in this country, we can attribute to unions the eight-hour work day, the five day week, the minimum wage, health and safety regulations, social security, the end of child labor, and the achievement of civil rights for women and people of color to name but a few. If we then look at the present day, we know from statistics that union workers have higher pay, better health care, and better pension plans. We know that the incomes of workers are lower in states where workers lack union rights. Finally, we know that unions help bring low-wage workers out of poverty.[ii]
The record of the labor movement brings me to the second question I posed this morning: where is God in all of this and where will God be, if and when, someone stands up? We might now narrow this question to something more specific: If unions are the central organizational vehicle by which workers have stood up for themselves, then does God work through unions? Did God work through unions to achieve all of those victories I just mentioned? I suspect that many of us would have an easy time saying that God worked through churches during the civil rights movement to bring about racial justice, but can we just as easily say that God has worked in a similar manner through unions? Does God only work through institutions that have God’s name emblazoned upon them? Or, does God defy our categorized thinking and seep in and out of all the areas of our lives including our workplaces? Perhaps, the more crucial question for us is whether God might work through churches that find a common cause with unions? The civil rights movement owed much of its success to this alliance. There is a great potential to be found when the solidarity ethic of unions joins forces with the solidarity ethic of churches.
Another way to consider this matter might be to think about what will happen to this country if unions don’t stand up for workers and if churches don’t find a common cause with the labor movement? Who will fill the vacuum as more and more workers become fed up and angry? Who will channel the resentments that fester as more and more working people fall below the poverty line? Earlier this year the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that “antigovernment ‘patriot’ groups” such as extremist militias surged in number by 244% last year as they “exploited populist anger across the country.”[iii] They further reported that hate groups have stayed at record levels and that “anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%.” The sources of the anger are the economic meltdown, the bailouts of bankers and other elites, national debt, changing racial demographics, and the perception of the Obama administration as either socialist or fascist.[iv] The danger of strong emotions is that they can be easily manipulated by attacks on scapegoats or by other forms of irrationalism. What will happen if there isn’t an alternative vehicle for the emotions that are surfacing in response to economic hardship?
I think it is easy to imagine a more hopeful scenario. I am thinking here of the story of an airport worker in Miami named Hugo Hernandez. The first time the workers at his terminal attempted to organize into a union he was skeptical. Unions had this stigma of mob influence and corruption, but five years later, his thinking started to shift. He saw family-oriented workers get fired without reason. He decided it was time for someone to stand up to this, and he realized that unions were the only way this could be done. He became a leader in the effort to organize his terminal. He and the other organizers knew that in order to be successful they would have to have leaders from each racial group: white, black, and Latino. They knew that the workers would need to realize they had to come together if they were going to be successful. Soon a common outlook emerged. According to Hernandez, “One person’s problem became everybody’s problem. It wasn’t just one person any more.” When the management attempted to attack the weakest link among the workers, the nightshift workers who were easier to isolate from the rest, Hernandez was at first the only one willing to risk taking a stand. He had decided to march down the loading dock with a flag. At first, he was the only one, but soon he was joined by two more with signs. Their team of three was not broken. As they marched, they would say to the nightshift workers, “We’re with you. Stay strong.” The night shift workers were amazed and elated, and soon the three were being applauded.
Sometime later in the campaign, a local black pastor came to the dock and stood with the workers before the management. The workers joined in a circle with their heads bowed, and then the pastor prayed, “We need strength, God. Please Lord, give us strength to go through this.”[v] And, I believe God was there. I believe God was there when Hernandez was joined on his march by two others. God was there when the pastor prayed. God was there when the union eventually won the election. In places throughout the United States, God is there standing up with workers. Let us stand up as well. Amen.
[i] Annette Bernhardt, et al., “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities,” <http://www.unprotectedworkers.org/index.php/broken_laws/index>.
[ii] AFL-CIO, “The Union Difference,” <http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/why/uniondifference/index.cfm>.
[iii] Southern Poverty Law Center, “New SPLC Report: ‘Patriot’ Groups, Militias Surge in Number in Past Year,” (March 2, 2010), <http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-report-number-of-patriot-groups-militias-surges-by-244-in-past-year>.
[iv] Mark Potok, “Rage on the Right: The Year in Hate and Extremism,” Intelligence Report, Spring 2010, No. 137, <http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/spring/rage-on-the-right>.
[v] Hugo Hernandez, “Instead of letting me go out alone, they went with me” in Staughton Lynd and Alice Lynd, eds., The New Rank and File, (Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 2000), 54-62.