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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | September 18 , 2015 | PAGE 5 A pope for the common people Walmart to reopen store that started strike wave Solidarity will undergo a revival Sept. 22-27 when Pope Francis makes his first-ever visit to the United States. Economic justice will be a major part of his mes- sage. In Washington, D.C., he’ll be the first pope to address a joint session of the United States Congress, and immediately af- ter, he’ll lunch with homeless, mentally ill, and immigrant clients of Catholic Charities. In New York, he’ll speak to the United Nations General Assem- bly, and visit immigrant day la- borers and Harlem schoolchild- ren. And in Philadelphia, he’ll visit a prison, celebrate a public mass, and deliver a speech at the World Meeting of Families. Since Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical On Capital and Labor, popes have criticized capitalist exploitation and consumerism. But Francis, more than other re- cent popes, has kept a focus on economic morality. “He’s very critical of an un- bridled capitalist system, a to- tally uncontrolled free market, because the results are inequity,” says Father Chuck Lienert, Pas- Walmart says it will soon re- open the five stores it closed simultaneously on April 13 for what it claimed were plumbing repairs that would take months to solve. In charges filed with the Na- tional Labor Relations Board, United Food and Commercial Workers and the union- backed group Our Walmart argue that the closures in Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas were simply cover for the real target — the store in Pico Rivera, California, where in 2012 workers waged the first strike against Walmart. The closures affected 2,200 work- ers nationwide, including 530 at the Pico Rivera store. On Sept. 10, the union filed new charges, saying Wal-Mart had no plans to offer jobs to for- mer employees who were ac- tively involved in the cam- paign for higher wages. During the closure, the union says, pro-union workers were told there were no positions available to transfer to at other stores. what we need,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka at a day-long meeting with Catholic bishops in June. “Part of the greatness of Pope Francis is that he sees everyone. And in seeing those who are excluded and suf- fering, he lifts all of us up so we can see and hear each other.” PORTLAND EVENTS tor Emeritus at Portland’s St. Andrew Catholic Church, and a member of the Faith Labor Committee of Portland Jobs with Justice. “He’s really talking about what it means to be a Christian in a broad sense, and part of that is issues of social jus- tice.” Lienert points to two docu- ments in particular that outline the Pope’s views: In Evangelii Gaudium, he takes aim at trickle-down free-market ideol- ogy and the economy of exclu- sion and inequality; and in Laudato Si, he talks of the moral responsibility to deal with cli- mate change, pollution, and waste and the evils of a throw- away culture. “For the labor movement, Pope Francis’s lessons of soli- darity and inclusion are exactly Watch the Pope’s address to Congress St. Andrew Catholic Church will hold a breakfast – open to all members of the public – at which attendees can watch Pope Francis address to Congress live. That’s at 806 NE Alberta Ave., in the gym, Thursday, Sept. 24. Doors open at 5 a.m. The event starts at 6:30 and the address begins at 7 a.m. PST. Response to the Address The Faith Labor Committee of Portland Jobs with Justice is sponsoring an Interfaith Blessing of Workers in response to the Pope’s address to U.S. Congress. The hour-long event will include statements from clergy as well, and brief presentations about several local worker justice campaigns. That’s at noon, Thursday, Sept. 24, at the First Christian Church of Portland, 1314 SW Park Ave. NATIONAL
