United in Solidarity with Unions and Workers 

“In the workplace, two factors greatly influence wages, benefits, and working conditions: workers’ bargaining power and public policies. Unions play important roles in both these areas…when workers come together in a union, they can exert pressure for better wages and benefits, negotiate workplace rules and procedures for dealing with problems, and have a voice in workplace decision-making.” (From The Way of Abundance, by Rev. Edith Rassell, Ph.D) 

God’s dreams for humanity are for all to have their material needs met, so that the world might know justice, flourishing, and peace. Universal living wages, health care, housing, labor protections, and more are rights God calls us to establish and sustain for all. For those able to work, these human rights must be baked into the terms of employment, at a minimum. Unfortunately, for decades now, the ability to meet one’s needs and right to organize for these rights has been intentionally and steadily stripped away nationwide, with devastating outcomes for our collective flourishing. Inequality is at dangerous levels. Something has to—and will —give. 

“Workers need unions…but current laws governing union organizing and judicial interpretation of these laws are heavily skewed to favor corporations, which, through legal and illegal means, nearly always successfully block workers’ efforts to organize…Strengthening and protecting workers’ rights to organize and strike will be key factors in reversing the trend toward greater inequality. This is why corporations have so strongly opposed unions and union organizing in recent decade. The needed changes are well known…” (From The Way of Abundance, by Rev. Edith Rassell, Ph.D) 

Alarmingly, the present Administration is moving swiftly and comprehensively with fascist fervor to gut workplace protections, illegally lay off scores of thousands of federal workers (and end their union rights), kidnap and deport advocates for Palestinian liberation and farmworker rights in broad daylight, turbocharge corporate permissions for laying waste to land, sea, and air, and enervate our taxpayer-funded safety nets and programs for stewarding all of the above. Those in charge of our governing systems and economic policies are now and have been the ones we’ve been warned about. Throughout our sacred texts, God, Jesus, and the prophets are fiercely unequivocal in condemning any and all wealth-hoarding, exploitation, oppression, and usury, promising harrowing days of judgment for those who don’t repent from these impoverishing practices. 

A great reckoning is currently at hand, and it will not be enough to simply disagree with the horrors unfolding from the sidelines, or even to simply advocate for change via “business as usual” methods we were taught would advance the people’s will. There has been no “business as usual” for a good while, and the white hoods of our powerbrokers in this death-dealing system we inhabit are now fully off. 

“Unions are good for workers, especially those in the bottom and middle of the wage scale. A worker covered by a union contract earns an average of 13 percent more than a similar nonunion worker and has better benefits. Unions narrow the historic wage disadvantages suffered by women and people of color. When unions are strong, they set a standard for an entire industry or occupation, raising wages for nonunion as well as union workers. Many problems present in workplaces today could be addressed by unions, such as scheduling abuses, lack of paid sick leave, and managers assigning workers too few hours.” (From The Way of Abundance, by Rev. Edith Rassell, Ph.D) 

Jesus, an itinerant handyman, was a low-wage worker, as the UCC button says. 

On paper, the United Church of Christ is committed to immigrant and worker rights, safety, living wages, robust benefits, labor protections, and has been for decades. The denomination has passed numerous resolutions over the years professing and advocating solidarity with everything from farmworker boycotts to miner strikes to accountability for corporate malfeasance on a variety of issues, and more. Economic justice is a top priority because there is nothing in Scripture and our modern world that isn’t intimately concerned with economic justice and the depredations of usury by the elites. Governance in the UCC is led by our members. Our priorities are directed by the people in our churches, who draft and vote on resolutions to direct our shared work. 

The good news is that over the decades, many UCC congregations and their members have heeded the words “on paper” and manifested them in policies at local, state, national, and corporate levels. We have union members in our pews, and members who show up to support the picket lines in their community. We belong to and support organizations that measurably advance worker rights. We have members who march with farmworkers and boycott the companies that exploit and enslave them.  

And now we can and must do more. We have the relationships and tools to realize much more robust activity at a time when the threats to specific lives and our collective livelihoods are extremely dire.  

Some powerful examples of bold, current worker solidarity in action include Arise Chicago and Faith UCC in Iowa City. In its mission to empower workers and unions through a variety of successfully leveraged resources and actions, a key component of Arise Chicago is its dedicated “faith and labor solidarity” model, which equips and mobilizes people of faith and conscience throughout the city to show up and speak out on behalf of their community members in need. The current president of their board is also former General Minister and President of the UCC! At Faith UCC in Iowa, the congregation has lived into its economic justice covenant for years, calling pastors who understand and support their work with the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa and many other potent local initiatives that have borne rich fruit for the entire area. 

At the UCC’s General Synod in 2017, we passed a resolution on wages and jobs containing these unequivocal declarations: 

“Whereas, we believe every worker’s right to form and join a labor union must be protected… 

We call on all settings of the United Church of Christ to advocate among local, state, and federal policy makers:…- to strengthen the right of workers to form and join labor unions, to protect this right more vigorously, and to increase penalties for violations,” 

Be it further resolved the Thirty-first General Synod of the United Church of Christ calls on all settings of the United Church of Christ to support workers’ efforts for better wages and working conditions and to participate in community efforts that seek to repair our economic and social divisions and build a moral economy; 

Be it further resolved that the Thirty-first General Synod of the United Church of Christ, recognizing that everyone who wants a job should have one, calls on all settings of the United Church of Christ to advocate with Congress and policymakers at all levels to create jobs and address our society’s unmet needs by, for example, repairing and replacing our crumbling infrastructure and providing affordable childcare and early-childhood education.” 

God gave us one day of rest; unions gave us two. Let’s use the rest to fight for the nourishment and thriving of all while we all yet have breath. 

The time is now. Is your congregation interested in lifting up Labor Sunday, supporting unions and farmworkers with your congregation’s resources, and embodying solidarity with workers fighting for our rights in your community? In 2025 and beyond, let us “fill the JAR” of God’s economic justice from our pews to the streets. 

• 2025 “Fill the JAR” campaign. Fill out the quick interest form here: https://www.ucc.org/fillthejar/act/ 

• Arise Chicago’s Workers Rights Manual – An indispensable resource, and model for many others nationwide! 

• The 2025 “All Church Reads” – Building Up a New World – Congregational Organizing for Transformative Impact – join the conversation and be transformed!  

• The Way of Abundance: Economic Justice in Scripture and Society, by Rev. Edith Rasell, Ph.D. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rev. Seth Wispelwey serves as the Minister for Economic Justice in the National Setting of the United Church of Christ.