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.

Elias Estabrook was a recent UUSC grassroots mobilization intern whose work focused on engaging youth. In the following blog post, he reflects on his time as a UUSC intern and the questions that youth face as they try to make positive change in the world.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
— Rev. Howard Thurman

What does this mean for young people like me? Rev. Howard Thurman's widely cherished and respected words capture what I grapple with as I seek out opportunities to learn about the world and make a difference. Where and how will I discover what truly makes me come alive? And how can we help other youth discover that for themselves?

Over the past two months, after an eight-month immersion experience abroad, I've settled into UUSC's office in Cambridge as an intern for grassroots mobilization. Just as I did in my rural, Senegalese host community, I've taken on the challenge of examining the role of youth in social change — and formulating ways for them to engage as leaders and aware members of society. In particular, I've focused on youth activism with respect to economic justice, from fair trade to restaurant workers' rights.

In my final week, I had the opportunity to attend parts of the National Youth Justice Summit, a UU College of Social Justice program. It was a privilege to see how 10 young Unitarian Universalists — much like I was just a few years ago — are tackling fundamental questions about social justice and developing realistic visions for how they can be agents of change. During the week, the youth forged connections as they shared perspectives. They were united by not only their UU faith and their leadership qualities but also their joint motivation and aspiration to make a difference. And that week can serve as the jumping off point for something even bigger.  

It was a blessing to end my stint at UUSC with such an interactive week. As we closed one of the sessions, assembled in a circle with joined hands, I voiced my gratitude for seeing my hopes for engaged young people manifested in the wisdom and determination of these eager leaders. Even though I spent much of my internship at a desk shaping important research and creative ideas into strategic information kits and workshop programs, being face-to-face with young UUs for a short time was ultimately the most gratifying. It made the youth-led social-justice movement I was envisioning and writing about incredibly real.

The world needs youth leaders to take on the complicated challenges of our time. But there are far too many for one young leader to take on alone. And so, as Howard Thurman believes, we need more youth who are intrinsically motivated and passionate about the good they can do in the world. As they explore, they will discover what they are most drawn to, whether it be campaigning for marriage equality or coordinating job-training programs for marginalized youth.  

Bringing out this enthusiasm and conviction is, of course, easier said than done. Reaching and harnessing this energy was one of the greatest challenges of my work. How do you motivate youth to contribute to social action, to understand and get involved with an important human-rights campaign? These were the questions I pondered. Yet, after this National Youth Justice Summit, this task seems much more possible. Surrounded by lively, inquisitive, and invested youth, I find my optimism about our generation reaffirmed.

A few days ago, the Occupy Boston General Assembly passed a resolution related to the human right to water. It stated, in its entirety, "Occupy Boston resolves that clean water is a human right."

What I love about this resolution is its simplicity. On some level, the issue is that simple — every person deserves clean water. No ifs, ands, or buts. Working on this issue, we can get caught up in all the details, the intricacies, and the multifaceted arguments about why people deserve clean water, how they're being denied it, and what remedies should be implemented. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the simple principle that underlies it all.  

Another thing I love about this resolution is the group that created it. The fact that Occupy Boston — part of a movement for economic justice largely motivated by economic inequalities — passed this resolution shows how interrelated various human-rights issues are. Who is likely to have their water shut off? People without the means to pay their water bills. And people with low or no income are the ones that have to deal with contaminated water because they don't have the money to buy clean bottled water — or to donate to candidates who will advance the human right to water on their behalf.

Mass Global Action, one of UUSC's partners working on the human right to water, has been very supportive of Occupy Boston because they understand the connection. They've allowed protesters to use their office for meetings and offered drinking water during protests. Building this kind of solidarity between movements is key to moving forward.

The interrelatedness of these human rights is one of the reasons that UUSC works on multiple issues — because on a fundamental level, they're the same issue. Social justice is about ending oppression in its many forms. When it comes down to it, we're all working to make sure that the humanity and dignity of each and every person is honored and upheld.

Youth from the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn at Occupy Wall Street. Photo courtesy of Mike D'Elia.

The following post was written by Beth Dana and Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward, two people involved with congregations in the New York City area that have actively engaged with the Occupy movement.

Youth groups and multigenerational teams from congregations throughout the New York City area have taken interest in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement this fall and winter. This is the story of how the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock in Manhasset, N.Y., have been involved.

Beth Dana, a seminarian intern at the Brooklyn congregation, writes about their experience visiting OWS:

Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward, the youth and young adult program coordinator at the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, shares about their engagement with post-raid OWS:

Whether or not they are located near Occupy sites, youth groups across the country can be involved in the movement for economic justice. By now, many of the Occupy movement camps have been shut down, and the movement has taken new forms. As OWS moves into its next phase, there are still ways for youth to advocate for economic justice. UUSC has resources to help youth and congregations work for a living wage, fair trade, and compassionate consumption through individual activism and legislative advocacy. Youth can also work to educate themselves and their peers about economic-justice issues. We hope this movement will, in the words of William Ellery Channing, "touch inner springs," prepare our youth to think and form opinions about justice issues, and ultimately "awaken the soul," as it did for the youth (and people of all ages!) at our congregations.

The group from the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock on their trip to engage in Occupy Wall Street activities. Photo courtesy of Liz Irwin.

The human right to water has scored yet another victory, this time in Kenya where a district court has determined that everyone in Kenya has a right to safe and clean water in adequate quantities.

A judge of the High Court at Embu, Kenya, said this while delivering judgment in a case brought by 1,123 people who were evicted from their lands by government officials to make way for road construction. The petitioners — among them women, children, and elderly persons — have occupied the lands since the 1940s. In spite of this, they were not given a notice of eviction or consulted by the government. They were rendered homeless when the government came with armed policemen and bulldozers, and evicted them. The police used tear gas on the petitioners and resorted to physical violence when they tried to resist the demolition of their homes. As a result, some of the petitioners were forced to live in the open, others in makeshift structures — all exposed to the elements of nature and health risks, and without access to basic necessities like food, water, and sanitation. Several children dropped out of school. In addition, 26 of the evicted individuals were over 60 years of age and forced to endure unbearable conditions.

In the decision, the court concluded that this style of eviction violated the dignity of the petitioners and their human rights. According to the court, the petitioners are entitled to the rights to adequate housing, reasonable standards of health care, and to clean and safe water in adequate quantities under the constitution of Kenya. In addition, it also ruled that the government violated the rights of the children to education.

The court also mentioned that Kenya has ratified the U.N. Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which means that the government is bound to respect, protect, and enforce the rights recognized in the covenant, including the rights to water and sanitation. In conclusion, the court awarded each person the sum of 200,000 Kenya shillings in damages and ruled that the petitioners should be allowed to return to their land.

Although the government may decide to appeal, this is a landmark decision and a victory for economic and social rights in Kenya. Kenya enacted a new constitution in 2010 that guarantees several economic and social rights, including the rights to water and sanitation. This decision represents the beginning of efforts by civil society in Kenya to ensure these rights are not just in the books but are implemented and respected by the government. Hopefully, the government of Kenya will comply with the court's decision and make sure the people affected are returned to their homes and adequately compensated.

Like thousands of activists around the country who are protesting the ever-mounting gap between the extremely rich and those of us who are the 99 percent, UUSC's economic-justice partner based in Springdale, Ark., is supporting the Occupy Northwest Arkansas movement. Meanwhile, rooted in its core mission to organize and advocate for workers to obtain a safe workplace and a fair wage, worker members of the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center (NWAWJC) continue to deal with day-to-day, firsthand experiences of wage theft, otherwise known as "the crime wave no one talks about."

NWAWJC has been a leader in bringing public attention to the enormity of the nationwide wage-theft issue, and I was especially pleased to see that their latest public activism caught the attention of radio and television outlets in Fayetteville, Ark.

The media coverage included a major feature story on KUAF-FM, the National Public Radio station in Fayetteville. You can listen to the nine-minute segment, "Restaurant Involved in Wage Theft Picketed," which aired as the lead in the daily Ozarks at Large program on Friday, November 18, 2011.

Click play button to listen or download the MP3 file.

The forum and rally also was featured in a two-minute video segment on KNWA-TV, a Fox Network affiliate, also based in Fayetteville.   

The news stories focused on events organized by the workers' justice center in Fayetteville. The forum spotlighted and urged support for an anti-wage theft bill pending in the Arkansas state legislature. The forum was followed by picketing in front of Celi's Restaurant on Center Street in Fayetteville for allegedly withholding wages from a former employee.  

"Wage theft takes a toll in our communities as wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year," said Fernando Garcia, the center's campaign director. "Wage theft too often forces workers to make tough decisions between feeding their families and providing them shelter. Workers should not have to go through these difficult times because some greedy employer decides to not pay wages."

Ana Aguayo, the center's communications director, pointed out that unscrupulous employers often use threats and other pressures to dissuade workers, many of whom are recent immigrants and do not speak English, from reporting wage-theft abuses.

"Wage theft includes violations of minimum-wage laws, not paying time-and-a-half overtime pay, forcing workers to work off the clock, workers not receiving their final paychecks, and stealing tips," said Aguayo. "Even the Economic Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank, estimated that companies annually steal 19 billion dollars in unpaid overtime. The scope of these abuses is staggering."

Last year, at the urging of NWAWJC, the mayor of Fayetteville issued a proclamation condemning wage theft as an illegal practice that causes irreparable harm to low-income workers and ethical businesses. Fayetteville was the first city in the United States to issue such a public pronouncement and to promise strong action to combat wage theft.

UUSC Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator Linda McKim-Bell reports after a weekend of activism with the Occupy movement and UUSC civil-liberties partner the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Last weekend on October 15, the youthful occupiers of Occupy Portland joined the peace rally, march, and forum here in Portland, Ore. Stalwart UU veterans of the peace community were overjoyed when the youthful occupiers accepted their invitation to participate in the peace rally and march. This linked their economic issues to the diversion and misuse of tax dollars for wars and militarism. Older UU activists had brought dozens of chocolate-chip cookies for the young occupiers at the camp the night before. There was a new synergy when the young faces showed up — they brought hope and solidarity. 

Four thousand people joined the rally and march. There were young people with college debt and college dreams. There were young families pushing their toddlers in strollers and worried about their children's futures. Peace buttons were passed out to those under 30! There were UUs as well as peace activists from other faiths, labor unions with signs, and military vets with flags. The Rev. Kate Lore, social-justice minister at First Unitarian Church Portland, was there with other UUs holding our church banners. The Peace Action Committee of First Unitarian Church was one of 40 community groups sponsoring and working on the rally. Signs told of foreclosed homes, health-care needs, worries about our future, and the need to stop the wars.

The energy in the crowd was electric. All had come together to make something new, something stronger that would carry the hopes of this nation's futures. The multitude of fresh, young faces and the working families that showed up to join the long-time peace community gave all a new hope. The feeling was that this time we had come together as a power to be reckoned with. Together we were stronger than we had ever been before. The coming together of the Occupy movement and the peace movement, as occurred here in Portland, is something new and something that needs to grow.

A forum was held at First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland after the march. Shahid Buttar of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a UUSC civil-liberties partner, spoke on the panel about the loss of our civil liberties since 9/11, including the impact on communities of color, religious communities, and immigrants. Laurie King of Jobs with Justice headed the panel and spoke about workers' struggles in Wisconsin. Veronica Dujon, sociology professor at Portland State University, encapsulated the history of U.S. foreign policy and militarism. Martin Hart-Landsberg, an economics professor at Lewis and Clark College, showed the linkages between foreign policy, military policy, and domestic policy and how these affect our lives here at home. Two evenings later, a reception was held for Shahid Buttar at First Unitarian Church, where he spoke about civil liberties in the time of the so-called "War on Terror."

After the forum, young activists carried the banner that asked "How is the war economy working for you?" and other signs from the march back to their encampment at Lownsdale Square in downtown Portland. They hung the banner between the trees among the tents of the Occupy Portland encampment. The signs and banners challenged passersby to think more deeply about where our tax dollars are going and  showed them that the peace movement's gray-haired veterans, the interfaith and UU peace communities, the young occupiers, the labor unions, the young families, and students are all one. We had come together. This day was important because the anti-war movement came together with the economic issues movement with new creative energy — and we are a force to be reckoned with!

Halloween is a scarily successful time for selling chocolate in the United States. With 42.5 percent of the market, Hershey — the maker of Hershey's Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Hershey's Kisses — is a leader on sales but not on human rights. In the last 10 years, they have lagged behind their competitors in ensuring that that child labor is not used and that the rights of workers and farmers are respected in the production process. Tell Hershey today that child labor is unacceptable.

UUSC supporters across the country have practiced compassionate consumption by promoting fair trade and ethical eating. And almost 1,200 supporters have signed UUSC's Choose Compassionate Consumption pledge, furthering their commitment to make value-driven purchasing decisions.

Today, we ask you to join with over 50,000 consumers nationwide who have signed petitions asking Hershey to "raise the bar" and go fair trade. Through this campaign led by UUSC's collaborative partners Green America and Global Exchange, send a message to Hershey that it is time for the company to live up to its commitment to end forced and child labor!

Rev. Peter A. Friedrichs, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County, Penn., writes about his support for the Occupy movement and about the moral imperative to address the systemic causes of economic injustice. 

In Jesus’s time, men and women walked the dusty, dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It’s about 17 miles from one town to the other, and because it was a major trade route, thieves and robbers favored it. Everybody knew that to walk this road alone was to take one’s life into one’s hands. That’s why Jesus used this setting to tell his parable about the Good Samaritan. It was a place where the contrast between good and evil, between callousness and caring, would be stark and sharp.

Jerusalem and Jericho stand just about the same distance apart as my church and the Occupy Philly encampment at City Hall in Philadelphia. Like the Jericho Road, the path between our suburban home and Center City is strewn with people who have been beaten, robbed, and left for dead. The thieves and robbers that populate our Jericho Road don’t jump out from behind bushes. They don’t wear bandanas to conceal their identity or brandish guns and knives. The thief on our Jericho Road is an economic system that has created the institutional oppression of a large segment of our population. 

The growing gap between the rich and the rest of us is undeniable. The richest 10 percent of our population holds more than 70 percent of the wealth in our country, and the “very rich” – the top 1 percent – own more than a third of the nation’s private wealth. Nearly 90 percent of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds in this country are owned by the top 10 percent wealthiest Americans. The disparities are even greater when you take race into account. The median net worth for whites is about 14 times greater than that of African Americans and Hispanics.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth. But when wealth is accumulated at the expense of others’ well-being – when it limits or denies their access to education, their ability to secure safe housing and good jobs, their access to quality health care – well, that’s where we’re walking down the Jericho Road.

What Jesus didn’t tell us is that we’re not just supposed to be Good Samaritans, fixing up the victims we find on the road. We’ve got to fix Jericho Road itself. We’ve got to make the road safer for everybody. We can’t just bind up the broken. We need to organize our power and apply it against the sources of pain and injustice. 

This is what the Occupy movement is all about. It’s clear that those who are camping out at City Hall in Philly, in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, and across the globe are seeking to change our economic, financial, and political systems. They’re seeking not a Band-Aid approach but broad-based systemic change. Whether they’re successful in maturing from a grassroots protest to an effective change agent remains to be seen. But what the Occupy movement seeks is to repair the Jericho Road or, perhaps, to build a new road altogether.

Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt, senior minister of the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York, writes about signing the UUSC open letter and raising a liberal religious voice in support of the Occupy movement.

It was a bright, beautiful Sunday afternoon that brought me to Zuccotti Park here in New York. I answered the call of my own curiosity as well as the summons for clergy of every faith to bear witness to an extraordinary grassroots movement for democratic process and economic justice. Walking along lower Broadway with my sisters and brothers of faith, being cheered by passersby — and even being joined by a few — energized me in a way I haven’t felt for some time. 

The Occupy movement is a growing moral and political force that has the potential to change our nation and our world. It gives productive voice to the fear and frustration of ordinary people who know something is wrong with this country that we love — something deeper than party or political position.

And even though there are other voices that seek to target the most vulnerable among us as the cause of our current malaise, the determined people of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy sites throughout the country — people of every race, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender expression, and immigration status — have chosen to end the silence about the economic and spiritual nightmare that threatens the future of us all.

We Unitarian Universalists have long echoed in our own General Assembly (GA) the outcry that has arisen in the General Assembly here in Zuccotti Park (also known as Liberty Park). In 1964, our GA general resolution described “poverty in the midst of plenty” as “intolerable to the religious conscience and incompatible with our principles of economic justice.” The threat to our common lives has only intensified since that GA resolution, and it is increasingly clear that we are approaching a state of emergency.

If you feel as I do, please join me in voicing your support for the work and witness of the Occupy movement, for though it started in New York City, it has spread to thousands of cities and towns around the world. Please sign UUSC’s open letter supporting the Occupy movement.

In partnership with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, we can join our liberal religious voices with those of thousands of other people who recognize this nation's current economic crisis as one symptom of a larger human-rights issue that affects us all.