Monday on Talk of the Nation on NPR there was a story about the future of unions. They had the president of the Service Employees International Union, Andy Stern, as a guest (in a previous life I helped to try to get this union to organize in a place I worked). He had some very interesting things to say. One thing that SEIU has done is to work for justice for janitors. The problem has been that even when employers wanted to pay their employees higher wages (better retention, harder workers, etc.) the market worked against them since contracts would always go to the lowest bidder. So SEIU took the novel approach of organizing the employers so that together they could increase wages and benefits across the board without cutting off their noses to spite their faces!
This got me thinking about the wonderful value of being one body with many parts. Andy Stern was talking about countering the problems of globalization by getting unions in different countries to work together just as the janitorial companies had. As Christians we are part of one of the largest "unions" on the planet. And we have a responsibility to all of our union brothers and sisters to work for their welfare. In fact, we are called to be "service employees" whose job it is to serve all others in order to make the world a better place.
There was another story on NPR this morning about students at Stanford teaching English to SEIU janitors at their school. What struck me was how much the students were able to see how they were benefitting from their giving. Not only is that how it should be; those who have experienced this sort of giving of themselves will tell you that this is just how it always is.
This got me thinking about the wonderful value of being one body with many parts. Andy Stern was talking about countering the problems of globalization by getting unions in different countries to work together just as the janitorial companies had. As Christians we are part of one of the largest "unions" on the planet. And we have a responsibility to all of our union brothers and sisters to work for their welfare. In fact, we are called to be "service employees" whose job it is to serve all others in order to make the world a better place.
There was another story on NPR this morning about students at Stanford teaching English to SEIU janitors at their school. What struck me was how much the students were able to see how they were benefitting from their giving. Not only is that how it should be; those who have experienced this sort of giving of themselves will tell you that this is just how it always is.
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