Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 1:01am
Faith leaders protest poverty wages
Forty years ago Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers making poverty wages, but faith leaders say millions of Americans still earn poverty wages. About 150 faith leaders from across the United States gathered March 13 in Memphis to continue King's work for living wages.
The event was held at historic Centenary United Methodist Church, whose pastor the Rev. James Lawson in 1968 organized support for striking sanitation workers protesting poverty wages, racial discrimination and dangerous working conditions, United Methodist News Service reported Tuesday. Workers won a union contract after 65 days on strike, a few days after King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
The interfaith worship service was cosponsored by the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign and the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice. The event kicked off a 24-hour fast for Memphis workers who do not earn a living wage and pressed the Memphis City Council to expand its living wage ordinance to include more workers. Speakers also urged national leaders to make the minimum wage a living wage.
Faith groups at the event included Baptist, United Methodist, Christian Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian U.S.A., Disciples of Christ, Reform Jewish, Conservative Jewish, Roman Catholic, Quaker and Unitarian churches.
The event was held at historic Centenary United Methodist Church, whose pastor the Rev. James Lawson in 1968 organized support for striking sanitation workers protesting poverty wages, racial discrimination and dangerous working conditions, United Methodist News Service reported Tuesday. Workers won a union contract after 65 days on strike, a few days after King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
The interfaith worship service was cosponsored by the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign and the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice. The event kicked off a 24-hour fast for Memphis workers who do not earn a living wage and pressed the Memphis City Council to expand its living wage ordinance to include more workers. Speakers also urged national leaders to make the minimum wage a living wage.
Faith groups at the event included Baptist, United Methodist, Christian Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian U.S.A., Disciples of Christ, Reform Jewish, Conservative Jewish, Roman Catholic, Quaker and Unitarian churches.