UUSC joins UUA President Peter Morales and all Unitarian Universalists in mourning the senseless deaths in Connecticut. I was in Kenya when the shootings occurred and was moved by the outpouring of shock and sympathy from around the world. How many more innocent people must die before we adopt sensible controls on weapons? Whether they would have prevented this tragedy or not, they will surely save uncountable numbers of lives.

I'd also like to share the statement released by UUA President Peter Morales:

I am shocked and profoundly saddened by the news of the massacre at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. My deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives today. I know of nothing more tragic than a young life cut short by violence. This is a time for embracing one another and helping each other find strength and solace.

This is just the latest horrific act of gun violence targeting innocent lives. Whether it's the mall shooting in Oregon or the mass murders in Aurora, Colorado or the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Arizona or the Columbine school killings, these instances of violence continue to erupt in America. It is an additional tragedy that today's killings occurred in an elementary school where our youngest and most vulnerable spend their day. All Americans must reflect humbly and work to change the conditions that allow such violence to take place.

We must rededicate ourselves to creating a society where differences are resolved without violence, where the mentally unstable do not have ready access to lethal force, where violence is not glorified, and where we can live, love, and work in safe places. Our task as a religious people committed to compassion and to peace is to show a better way.

 

A UUSC local representative is the direct link between a congregation and UUSC. Local reps volunteer to help UUSC partner with their congregations to advance human rights and social justice in the United States and around the world — and these efforts help make UUSC's work possible.

What does a UUSC local rep do?

• Raise awareness of UUSC's programs and action opportunities
• Build strong UUSC membership among congregation members
• Help raise the funds necessary for UUSC to defend human rights

Local reps disseminate key information to congregational leaders and committees, and work with them to foster participation in Guest at Your Table and Justice Sunday. Local reps are encouraged (though not required) to work in pairs; those in larger congregations have formed UUSC teams, and many local reps work with their social-action committee or faith-in-justice team. You can split tasks according to time, talents, and skills so that your projects are more successful and enjoyable!

The role of local rep is flexible and adaptable to your interests. In addition to the core responsibilities, a local rep may facilitate a range of activities, including the following:

• Tabling for UUSC during coffee hours
• Organizing a membership drive for UUSC with a specific goal
• Hosting a UUSC speaker during a service, workshop, or other event
• Coordinating a youth-led fundraising project (like some of our amazing volunteers in Florida have done)
• Sharing the plate for UUSC, informing the congregation on why they should support UUSC's work, and reporting back on how much money is raised

Collaboration with congregational leadership — ministers, religious education professionals, board members, social-action committee, etc. — is very important in this process. Talk with your congregational leadership about becoming a UUSC local rep to ensure congregational policies are upheld (you may need approval from the minister, board chair, or other congregational body). Each local rep makes a one-year commitment, renewable on an annual basis. After accepting the role, you will receive a full orientation packet. UUSC provides annual congregational program materials, monthly update bulletins, and monthly conference calls on key topics. 

Local reps are essential in connecting UUSC to congregations. Please consider making the commitment — because justice is needed today and every day. Are you ready? Complete this online form or contact us at volunteerservices@uusc.org to get started!

There's a book I really want you to read, only here's the catch: it's not in bookstores yet. So why am I telling you? Because this book will put an essential issue of economic justice on the map — but only with your help. Our immediate goal: get it on the bestseller lists. Our bigger goal: change the national conversation about the rights of restaurant workers.

Raising wages for millions of restaurant workers

For the past three years, UUSC has been working our partner the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) to raise the federal tipped minimum wage. It's been frozen at a mere $2.13 per hour since 1991, leaving millions of workers — mostly women — in poverty and unable to feed their own families. We've advocated for legislation (the WAGES Act and the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012), but none of it has made it into law yet. We expect a similar bill to be reintroduced in 2013, and we need to show policymakers that there is widespread popular support for raising this minimum wage.

We have a plan to achieve this! It starts with you — and it continues with everyone you know. We believe that there are millions of people who eat out at restaurants and who care about how the people who make their meals possible are treated. To reach those millions, ROC-United's codirector and cofounder Saru Jayaraman has written a book, Behind the Kitchen Door: What Every Diner Should Know About the People Who Feed Us, that provides an inside look into the personal experiences of restaurant workers around the country.

Here's what Danny Glover, actor, producer, and cofounder of Louverture Films, has said about the book:

"With Behind the Kitchen Door, Saru Jayaraman has introduced a fresh and essential perspective on our culture's food obsessions and dining habits. By highlighting the lives and circumstances of workers who are often unseen and unheard, she has helped us see that labor is a key ingredient of authentic sustainability, and greatly enriched our understanding of those people who have — whether we have recognized it or not — been part of some of the most important celebrations of our lives."

Putting the "W" in SLOW

Behind the Kitchen Door is not just a book — it is the key to reaching a broad audience and a unique opportunity for Unitarian Universalists and other UUSC and ROC-United supporters to change the national conversation about how to create a truly sustainable food system. Since Unitarian Universalists are often at the leading edge of emerging justice issues, more than 400 congregations across the country have been involved in the Ethical Eating Congregational Study Action Issue, and in 2011 the UU General Assembly approved "Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice" as a statement of conscience.

Building on that foundation, UUSC believes that UUs can continue to be at the forefront of this national movement to improve the restaurant industry. Just as diners changed the restaurant industry by asking for sustainable, locally sourced, and organic (SLO) options, we can shift restaurant practices from the bottom up by requesting respect for workers' rights in every dining establishment — putting the "W" in SLOW.

How you can help

We hope that you will help take the lead in sharing the book's message and that we can work together to help Behind the Kitchen Door make it onto the New York Times bestsellers list, thereby garnering vital national attention for restaurant workers and their call for better conditions.

We will be counting on you to buy Behind the Kitchen Door in the critical first two weeks of its release — February 11-23, 2013 — to get it on the bestseller lists, so we can make sure that millions of Americans read this book and join the conversation. UUSC will provide links to Powell's Books and other vendors where you will be able to purchase the book. We will also offer a discussion guide and other materials to help you take action in your own community. Let's make this a major turning point for the more than 10 million workers who chop, cook, and serve our food!

I have been fortunate enough to spend the past couple of days in Los Angeles in support of Malya Villard-Appolon, a UUSC partner. She has been on a quest to become the 2012 CNN Hero of the Year on behalf of her organization KOFAVIV (Women Victims for Victims), a rape crisis center in Haiti. While Malya didn't win the grand prize, the journey has been remarkable and I think it's just the beginning of more good things for KOFAVIV. 

The CNN Hero of the Year contest culminated in an awards ceremony Sunday night, which was just incredible. I am still pinching myself. I am not ashamed to admit that I was a bit starstruck when one of my film heroes, Susan Sarandon, strolled past my seat on her way to the stage (she actually made eye contact, and we smiled at each other!). But what impressed me most was that everyone there seemed to be well aware of who the real heroes we were there to celebrate were. Someone tweeted to CNN during the show about how rare it is "at a Hollywood awards show to hear stars say 'It's not about me.' And mean it." But there really was a palpable sense that there was something different about this show, about setting aside the tinsel of Tinseltown and getting down in the trenches to honor the nitty-gritty of the best of what it is to be human.

There was something so affirming about the attention and spotlights being directed to shine on these everyday heroes who are transforming tragedy into hope on a daily basis and shining a beacon for the rest of us of what can be possible. It was also so encouraging to know how many UU supporters had been sending in their votes daily for Malya. And even though she didn't win the ultimate prize, as a finalist she'll receive $50,000 to further KOFAVIV's work. And beyond that, I am confident that this experience will open doors for KOFAVIV's work to reach a whole new audience of potential supporters who will choose to become heroes in their own ways by supporting the work of KOFAVIV and Malya.

As exciting as it was to share my memorable moment with Susan Sarandon (memorable at least for me!), the highlight of the night for me was just before the show began, when I went to offer Malya a final wish for good luck. She was seated front row center in this huge auditorium surrounded by celebrities, decked out like a queen and smiling like a Buddha. I knelt to talk with her and was suddenly too overcome to speak, and we just looked into each other's eyes. Our eyes began to glisten with tears. All we could do was shake our heads and connect in a heartfelt hug. For my part, I was remembering when we met, shortly after the earthquake, and she was living in the depths of grief and loss and despair — but what she never lost, remarkably, was her fierce determination to continue the work, from the tent she was now sharing with her extended family in a camp for displaced people.

Working in the trenches of human rights, UUSC staff often experience a lot of the "dark side" in the tragedies our partners are struggling with. Even for the most optimistic of personalities, things can often feel so upside down and backwards from what they ought to be, as if the wrong people are being consistently rewarded for the wrong things. But there are those moments, like last night at the CNN Hero Awards seeing Malya in her place of honor, when for a couple of hours at least, all is right with the world.

When an organization has a huge budget, it can afford to waste a few dollars here and there without worrying that that profligacy will have a substantial impact on its mission. For an organization of UUSC's size, however, every penny counts.

That's why we're so proud we spend 87 cents of every dollar on programs. And it's why we take the three themes of of our 2012 Annual Report so seriously.

First, engagement. We're eager to use the people power at our disposal to optimize our effectiveness. Our members, most of whom are associated with Unitarian Universalist congregations, are natural born activists. They're itching to get their hands dirty, be it on their computer keyboards taking online actions or by building an eco-village in Haiti. UUSC is committed to helping our members do justice because a modest investment in activism can bring enormous dividends to everyone.

Second, innovation. Wherever we go in the world, we ask ourselves, "Who's been forgotten and who is doing the most creative, groundbreaking work to transform and empower those forgotten populations?" By finding the most innovative, entrepreneurial approaches to problems and crises, we accomplish several things at once: we support the risk takers, those on the cutting edge, who governments or more traditional agencies may have overlooked or shunned; we encourage new solutions to old quandaries; we engage with communities, often of women or ethnic minorities, too often marginalized in their societies; and we do all this at a modest cost.

But how do we know whether what we, our activists, and our partners are doing is truly making a difference, accomplishing our objectives? That brings us to our third theme, impact. Over the past year UUSC has begun a groundbreaking process of establishing measurements of project success and accountability, doing an honest assessment of impact, and learning from our achievements and perhaps even more often from when we fall short of our goals. It's not always easy to measure social change. Not everything we do is by any means quantifiable. But we're experimenting with different approaches to measuring impact because we know that at the end of the day the only thing that really counts is how many lives we've actually changed.

You'll find in our annual report many examples of our engagement with activists, our commitment to innovation, and our determination to make an identifiable impact on the world. You'll also find the voices and names of many of those who make our work possible; who know that UUSC is smart, nimble, and relentless; who want to see the cause of justice flourish; and who are convinced that UUSC is one of best means to make it so.

UUSC — there's no better investment.

To all of you who have made that investment, be it in time, energy, or money, our warmest, deepest thanks. Happy reading!

William F. Schulz
President and CEO

Chuck Spence
Chair, Board of Trustees

Claiming that the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. "Obamacare," will cost them millions, Papa John's, Olive Garden, and other restaurant chains are announcing that they will begin instituting higher menu prices and huge cuts to employees' hours. One Denny's franchise owner suggested that if customers were upset about paying the surcharge, they could choose to reduce tips to their servers to offset the increase. Meanwhile, some corporate executives are matter-of-factly admitting that to avoid passing the cost onto consumers they will simply evade the obligation to insure their workers by shifting to a part-time workforce. While it is appalling that restaurant employers are pronouncing their intention to ensure that workers don't receive basic benefits, this practice is hardly new.

The restaurant industry has maintained this status quo — in which more than 90 percent of restaurant workers don't have health insurance or paid sick days — by intervening to defeat the passage of paid-sick-day laws. But that's not all. They've also lobbied Congress for decades — yes, more than 20 years — to keep the federal tipped minimum wage at just $2.13 per hour. (And despite laws saying that employers have to make up the difference to reach regular minimum wage when tips fall short, the hard reality is that many employers ignore the law.) The industry is determined to be exempted from any policy aimed at providing fair wages and benefits to its workers.

UUSC partners with the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) to ensure the opposite. As part of our Choose Compassionate Consumption initiative, we're working to make sure that restaurant workers receive what every worker deserves: a living wage, access to standard benefits like paid sick days and health insurance, and a chance to advance. And we need you to join us! We've got a bunch of opportunities to get involved coming up as we help get the word out about Behind the Kitchen Door, a book by ROC-United cofounder Saru Jayaraman that explores these issues.

Besides being the right and moral thing to do, standing up for the rights of restaurant workers is in our best interests as consumers — who wants to go out to dinner to celebrate and be served a side of germs because the waiter or the chef is working while sick?

The primary elections have long since ended; the presidential debates have heightened voter interest; and the most expensive advertising blitz in world history has dulled our senses. Many of us are happy to see this almost two-year-long election season come to an end. Now is the time for every U.S. citizen to exercise his or her most precious right in a democratic society — the right to vote!

All of the partisan pageantry comes down to a dramatic finale on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. On Election Day, we express our values in a direct and public manner. We get to practice the great privilege and responsibility of voting. There are many reasons for U.S. citizens to exercise the right to vote, and it is always disconcerting to learn that the turnout of eligible voters in our country is most often the lowest of all the advanced democracies in the world.

In the United States, the right for all citizens to vote was not provided by law for nearly 200 years, and in many states today, thanks to new ID requirements, there are still barriers that discourage full participation. The original U.S. Constitution essentially provided voting rights for white, adult males, and the concept of universal suffrage was not written into law until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The history of electoral politics is rife with instances of exclusion and marginalization, and this is why it is the moral imperative of all U.S. citizens — regardless of race, religion, or creed — who are above the age of 18 and eligible to vote, to do so.

This is one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history. In fact, one candidate may win the popular vote and the other the Electoral College vote, the latter of which actually determines the next president. This is what happened in 2000 when former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote nationally but Gorge W. Bush won the Electoral College vote that was ultimately confirmed by a controversial decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

As a nonprofit human rights organization, UUSC promotes the right to vote and other democratic processes not only in the United States but in such faraway places as Egypt, Ecuador, Kenya, South Africa, and Myanmar.

Few of our members and supporters can travel to distant countries to help promote human rights. But on Election Day in the United States, virtually all of our more than 40,000 members can be social and political activists by reminding their friends and neighbors that their vote is important in deciding the future course of history in their hometowns, states, and country.

In addition to the presidency, there are elections in every state for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and in 33 states for the U.S. Senate. Additionally, there are important state and local elections, as well as ballot initiatives in virtually every state, including opportunities in four states to vote on marriage equality. For more information and details about the November 6, 2012, elections in your state and municipality, visit nonprofitvote.org.

As a faith-based organization, we are grounded in the principles of the Unitarian Universalist (UU) denomination, including the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. In the twentieth century, UUs were in the forefront of campaigns to extend and ensure the right to vote to all citizens regardless of race, gender, class, and other arbitrary identity barriers. During the height of the civil rights movements of the 1960s, UUs were on the front lines of the voting rights movement in Alabama, Mississippi, and other southern states.

On this Election Day, our legacy is in our hands and our moral compass can help determine our future. Far away from the cacophony of the political season, as we walk into the quiet reflection of the voting booth, we can ask ourselves, "What do I stand for? What is the world that I want to see? Who will help us achieve this vision?"

Last Halloween, UUSC members joined with over 150,000 consumers, union allies, and religious groups, as well as over 40 food co-ops and natural grocers calling on Hershey to "raise the bar" and address issues of child and forced labor in their supply chain. I'm excited to tell you that on October 3, the Hershey Company announced that it will source 100 percent of its cocoa from certified cocoa producers by 2020 and bolster its programs to eliminate child labor in West Africa.

UUSC joins with our allies — Green America, Global Exchange, and the International Labor Rights Forum — to congratulate Hershey on this historic step and urge them to release specifics on how they will realize this commitment. So far, it is unclear which certification system the company intends to utilize. This is a critically important question since not all certifications adequately address the worst forms of child labor (as defined by the International Labour Organization's Convention 182).

Hershey has made promises in the past. In 2001, they signed on to the Harkin-Engel Protocol,  also known as the Cocoa Protocol, a voluntary nonbinding agreement in which they joined other cocoa companies and governments in promising to end child labor in cocoa supply chains. Over 10 years later, we have seen few steps from Hershey to fulfill that pledge.

We are cautiously optimistic that Hershey may in fact keep their latest promise — if anything because it will affect their bottom line. Only a week before Hershey's announcement, Whole Foods Market announced it was removing Hershey's Scharffen Berger line from its stores until Hershey took steps to address child labor in its supply chain.

While there is reason to be hopeful, we must also remain vigilant. We join with our allies in asking Hershey to do the following:

1. Establish a system of established third-party certifiers or vendor assurance programs, who will certify that they are in fact changing their policies
2. Set out clear benchmarks for how they will meet their 2020 goal
3. Have an in-house certification team to implement the plan
4. Invest in certification capacity building — in order to meet its goal it must invest in supporting growth of certified products
5. Be transparent and report on the impacts of this program

Regardless of the next steps to ensure that Hershey keeps its promise, we should pause to congratulate all those who have made this happen — including our members who have sent letters to the Hershey Company demanding this change! Consumer pressure works; that is why we encourage you to choose compassionate consumption. If you're interested in more on this issue, I recommend reading the International Labor Rights Forum's statement.

Now, I feel like eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup to celebrate — on second thought, not quite yet!

A few weeks ago, we witnessed a major victory for restaurant workers organized by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, a UUSC partner, in this case led by the New York affiliate (ROC-NY). After two years of organizing, restaurant workers in New York City signed a settlement agreement with Del Posto Restaurant, owned by celebrity chef Mario Batali.

The settlement agreement includes paid sick days, new human resource policies, and $1.15 million in back wages. Most importantly, Batali has agreed to join ROC's Restaurant Industry Roundtable as a "high road" partner. News on the settlement made headlines across the country, with coverage from the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.

It's important to note that this victory does not just affect the 31 current Del Posto workers immediately involved in the settlement — it will indirectly affect the many other workers within Batali's restaurant group and will have ripple effects for restaurant workers across New York City and throughout the industry at large. This strategy of organizing campaigns targeting high-profile fine-dining companies is all about setting standards across the industry.

This is just another affirmation that ROC's model truly works — and we're working with them to make sure similar victories will emerge from future campaigns!

Learn more about ROC-United's strategy from cofounder Saru Jayaraman:

I'm asking for your time, expertise, and moral voice.

Workers in the restaurant industry are calling for better working conditions, including basic improvements like paid sick days and a fair minimum wage for tipped workers. We believe that these demands are just and that the goal of changing the U.S. restaurant industry, while ambitious, is ultimately achievable. But we need your help between now and February.

I'm asking you to be a thought leader and an organizer, raising awareness of the need for worker justice in the restaurant industry. We need to create a groundswell of consumer pressure, calling for respect for the rights of restaurant workers. Sign up to be part of this groundswell.

Remember how Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (made into the movie Food, Inc.) created a sea change of public interest in healthier eating?

That's what you can do for restaurant workers. UUSC works closely with an organization called the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United). Their codirector and cofounder Saru Jayaraman has a new book titled Behind the Kitchen Door: What Every Diner Should Know About the People Who Feed Us. Scheduled for release on February 13, 2013, this book provides an inside look into the experiences of people who prepare, cook, and serve our food.

The publication of this book provides a unique opportunity for Unitarian Universalists and other UUSC and ROC-United supporters to interject a discussion of restaurant worker conditions into the national conversation.

Book groups in UU congregations around the country are encouraged to read and discuss Behind the Kitchen Door. And there's going to be a national book tour  which may be coming to a city near you. And as part of UUSC's Justice Sunday program, there will a virtual "Get Together" with the author Saru Jayaraman on February 24, 2013. The "Get Together" will be an interview and question-and-answer period to discuss the book. All UUSC supporters and other people committed to restaurant worker justice are invited to participate.

We hope that UUSC supporters will take the lead in sharing the message of Behind the Kitchen Door within your communities. And we hope that helps Behind the Kitchen Door make it onto the New York Times bestsellers list, thereby garnering further national attention for restaurant workers and their call for better conditions.

Our long-term plan is to pass federal legislation that increases the minimum wage for tipped workers (tipped workers are often paid as little as $2.13 per hour, and that wage hasn't been raised in more than 20 years!)

But our contacts in the U.S. Congress have made it clear that if we want to see such a bill passed, we need to create a groundswell of popular support for raising the tipped minimum wage. In particular, we need to counterbalance the powerful voice of the National Restaurant Association lobby, which spends millions of dollars each year to shape federal and state legislation on issues like the tipped minimum wage and paid sick days.

So this is where we start. With a book. And with you.

If we can change the public conversation, we make a real-world impact on the lives of restaurant workers. You can play a critical role. Learn more about how you can participate.