Last year through the organizing work of Sharon Post, Adult Spiritual Formation Committee hosted a Labor in the Pulpit presentation by Arise Chicago, formed in 1991 by a group of faith leaders to address systemic poverty in Chicago. This year, Ministry on Racism member Julie Liang reconnected with Arise Chicago to bring its Labor in the Pulpit again to Northside Friends for a Second Hour on Sunday, September 6 during Labor Day weekend.

John Hayes from the Service Employees International Union Local 1, also based in Chicago, did a brief presentation on SEUI’s efforts to organize ride-share drivers. (Last year the the Second Hour focus was on the unionizing work at Starbucks.) Following Hayes’s brief presentation, which included ways that Northside can support these efforts, we held a brief period of discussion with attending Friends.

Hayes has been organizing security officers, janitors, hospital employees, fast food workers, adjunct professors, and home care aids with Service Employees International Union for 15 years. He now serves as the SEIU Local 1 Contract Administrator and is a graduate of Boston University and The John Marshall Law School (now University of Illinois at Chicago School of Law.) His Union, with 30,000 members in Chicago, is the founding local union of the Service Employees International Union, formed here in Chicago in 1921 by maintenance workers.

Arise Chicago helps to organize working class immigrants in partnership with faith communities. Their program Labor in the Pulpit brings union leaders to faith communities around Labor Day to lift up the dignity of work and sacred worth of everyone in the workplace. Ministry on Racism’s summary of calls to action for those who would like to support the union’s efforts follows this transcription of what John Hayes shared with Northside Friends:

The labor movement comes into houses of Worship every Labor Day for a reason. Faith communities and unions share a fundamental belief: every person has dignity, every person deserves justice, and none of us should have to struggle alone.

Our faith traditions teach us that we have responsibilities to one another. That when our neighbor is suffering, we cannot simply look away. That those with power have an obligation to act justly. And that there is strength when people come together in pursuit of something greater than themselves.

These are also the values at the heart of the labor movement.

Right now those values are being tested. Across our country, the right of working people to come together to form a union is under attack.

Corporations spend millions trying to stop workers from organizing. Institutions created to protect workers’ rights have been undermined. And as our economy changes, corporations have found new ways to deny workers basic rights generations before us fought to win.

At the heart of these attacks is a simple effort: keep working people divided and alone. But our faith traditions teach us the opposite. They teach us that we belong to one another. They teach us that we have an obligation to stand with our neighbors. They teach us that community has power, especially when ordinary people come together against injustice.

Story of Now

That is exactly what ride-share drivers across Illinois have done. For years, Uber and Lyft drivers have worked in isolation - one driver, one car, one app. Their pay can change because am algorithm changes. They shoulder rising costs for gas, insurance, and vehicle maintenance. They can be deactivated from the apps they depend on for income with little warning or recourse.

And the multibillion dollar corporations on the other side have held nearly all the power. Uber and Lyft counted on drivers remaining isolated from one another. But drivers chose community instead. They found one another. They listened to one another’s stories. They discovered that the struggles they thought they were facing alone were shared by thousands of other drivers.

And then they organized. Drivers traveled thousands of miles across Illinois. They went to Springfield week after week. They spoke with legislators. They told their stories. They stood together and demanded a voice in the decisions affecting their work and their families.

They lived out something our faith communities have understood for generations. . . .When one person stands alone, they can be ignored. When a community stands together, it can move mountains. And this year, ride-share drivers did just that. More than 100,000 Uber and Lyft drivers across Illinois won a historic pathway to form a union and bargain collectively. Drivers took on some of the world’s largest corporations and won.

But passing a law was not the end of this journey; it opened the door. Now drivers must walk through it together. Rideshare drivers across Illinois are building the App Drivers Union so drivers can have a lasting voice over the work they do every day. Because lasting change cannot depend on the generosity of a corporation. It comes from power, and for working people, power comes from standing together.

Through the App Drivers Union, drivers can build the collective power to bargain over what determines whether they can support themselves and their families: better pay, benefits, safety, protection from unfair deactivations, and dignity on the job.

That is what solidarity means. It means saying: Your struggle matters to me. It means refusing to leave our neighbors to fight alone. And it means recognizing that when one worker’s dignity is diminished, it diminishes all of us.

So today, I am asking Northside Friends to help us put those values into action. If you drive for Uber or Lyft in Illinois, join the App Drivers Union. If someone in your family drives, talk to them about joining. If your friend, neighbor, or fellow congregant drives, tell them that something historic is happening in Illinois - rideshare drivers finally have the opportunity to build their own unions and create lasting change in their industry. . . .Thank you for having me today.”

During the question and answer period that followed John’s talk, additional opportunities were outlined for how Northside Friends and other faith communities can support SEIU Local 1’s efforts to organize ride-share drivers. The three most important goals of the effort would address inequities in the percentage drivers are paid for each ride; terminations of driver accounts without recourse; and receiving benefits like retirement and healthcare.

Rideshare companies themselves are making it harder and harder for drivers to make a living, and won't do right out of goodness of their hearts. In organizing the App Drivers Union, fear is the biggest challenge; drivers need need hope and anger to move to action. In its efforts, SEIU Local 1 holds rallies every couple of months and posts announcements of them on its website, seiu1.org