Trade unions--democracy in the work place--are one way of closing the gap.

Our Christian social teaching is that people have a right to work, that they should be paid a just wage, and that work should be consistent with human dignity and contribute to their fulfilment as human beings.

"We have a factory in China where we have 250 people. We own them; it's our factory. We pay them $40 a month and they work 28 days a month. They work from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. with two breaks for lunch and dinner. They eat all together, 16 people to a room,stacked on four bunks to the ceiling. Generally they are young girls from the hills." Irwin Gordon, President of Ava-Line.

This is unconscionable, inhumane and a gross violation of human rights. It is time for unions and companies, workers and investors, to call upon governments to define the rules of the global market.

In Canada the globilized free market has started a race to the bottom which our mainstream (rightwing?) media has persuaded us is inevitable. It's OK for CEOs to get their millions but workers must take wage cuts. 80 % of private sector employers hire professional consultants to fight workers' unions. Companies contract out to get around trade unions.They call permanent part-time jobs economic growth.

What can you and your congregation do about it?

1. Survey your congregation's workers. Find out where people work. Do they feel they are treated respectfully. Are there ways you can support the workers in your congregation?

2. Set aside an entire worship service to focus on God's desire for justice and democracy in the work place. If there are labour leaders in your congregation invite them to speak. Have an after-service meeting with someone from the Department of Labour or with a trade union official.

3. Form a Bible study group for both workers and employers focused on what the Bible teaches about being a just worker and just employer.

4. Join other ethical consumers in your congregation. Support the Wear Fair Campaign of Ten Days for Global Justice by writing or speaking to your retail store manager about the sweatshop conditions in which most clothes and shoes are made. Can your company guarantee that the apparel on sale has been made in a factory where a living wage is paid,where there is a right to organize and where there are safe working conditions? Hold a "wear fair" fashion show.

5. Communicate with your M.P. Let him/her know what you are concerned about. Don't worry about wording it the right way. Just say it.

6. Call a radio talk-show. Often these are virtual town meetings over the air. Your call for justice in the workplace on the part of both employers and workers will have a common sense appeal.

I am a Cree. I believe that our experiences with imperialism, colonialism and federalism can be instructive to those Canadians who fear the loss of their independence, loss of their land, water and economies and the loss of their territorial sovereignty, or the control of their way of life.

The americanization of Canada is a very powerful stream. There must be a national program of resistance to the global assimilation of corporate values that put profit ahead of people, or [ahead of] the capacity of a country to remain a true democracy.

We the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas understand all too well that our survival and future is linked to the maintenance of our separate and distinct identity, and to the free exercise of our inherent self-determination within our territories.

I ask this question: how does it feel to be forced into something that you have very little power to prevent?

It seems ironic that after trying so hard for so many centuries to dispossess the First Peoples of their rights and future, we are seeing a modern and young Canada handing over its sovereignty and wealth to the Americans under the Free Trade Agreements, thereby making Canada the newest colony for corporate interests.

How can Canadians learn from our terrible journey--from a free people to that of dependency in less than one century?

J.E.I.E. c/o Winnipeg Presbytery
206-490 Hargrave Street
Winnipeg, MB R3A 0X7
Phone: (204) 943 - 1522
Fax: (204) 949 - 1397
E mail winnpres@escape.ca