Striking Shaw’s Workers Visit UUCM During 60-Mile March to Boston

June 7, 2010 by Dave.

This was written for my church’s monthly newsletter for June. I’ve included the link to the website below for a couple of photos of the service. I’ve expanded a little on the strike itself to give some background to the strike and the march.  

http://uumedford.org/newsletters.html

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All 40 of the striking Methuen Warehouse union workers were supposed to spend Tuesday, May 25 overnight at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Medford, MA after their meals and prayer service. However they all just finished an 18-mile march from Reading to Medford in temperatures that topped 85 degrees, and the church has no air conditioning or showers. After some discussion, a decision was made to drive the striking workers back to their homes for the night. They would be brought back to the church early in the morning to start the next leg of their march from Medford to Somerville on Wednesday, and later would push on to their final destinations—a Thursday rally at the state house before a march onto the Shaw’s supermarket at the Prudential Center. For now, they would enjoy a pasta meal and company with the senior minister Rev. Hank Peirce and a few of the church’s congregants.

On March 7, 306 Shaw’s workers rejected a company offer that they said would mean an annual loss of $1,456 per family on the company health plan. Though that amounts to $28 per week per family, Shaw’s parent company, Supervalu, netted $40.6 billion in fiscal 2010, a $4 billion drop from the previous year. Inspired by the protests of the ’60s, the five-day, 60-mile march was created to publicize the strike and keep pressure on Shaw’s. Despite striking close to three months, workers and the strike have received little public notice. Since April 1, Shaw’s revoked the striking worker’s health insurance and hired replacement workers in the Methuen Warehouse. UUCM was one of three stops along the route where religious leaders opened their doors to host the marchers. The two others were Temple B’nai B’rith in Somerville and Old South Methodist in Reading, and all three leaders signed a petition urging Shaw’s to renegotiate a fair contract with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791 (representing the Methuen workers) and restore their health benefits. Like the marches of the ‘60s, stops among spiritual communities worked out to be a respite for body, mind and spirit.

With service leader Anthony Zuba of the Massachusetts Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice at his side, Rev. Hank Peirce opened the space with a Biblical story. Pausing to let Carlos, a bilingual Methuen worker, translate what he was saying for some of the Spanish-only speaking workers, Rev. Peirce told how King David spied Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hitite, bathing on a rooftop and conspired to marry her by having his troops abandon Uriah in battle. The prophet Nathan confronted David with the murder and subsequent marriage by telling a parable of a rich man who had may sheep that stole a lamb from a poor man who only had the one. When David, enraged at the story, said the man who did that deserves to die, Nathan replied to David “You are that man.” Rev. Peirce told the workers “Shaw’s is that man; you are the lamb.” Peirce led a benediction, asking God “to fill us with the light and the knowledge that what you are doing is right.” He concluded by saying “Shaw’s wants to take what you have. Ask God to be with us until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Anthony continued the service for all saying “God is with us in a special way tonight. God comforts us like cool breeze.” For striking workers looking towards two more days and many more miles in 70+ degree weather, this struck a comforting chord. With some heads bowed, some nodding, Zuba said “We believe God dances and weeps with us. God gives us the hope and courage and strength to endure.” He added, “When we work for justice, when we speak together in God’s name, we enter God’s heart and God enters our heart.” He asked the workers to speak their own prayers and concerns to all present. Words came in Spanish and English, translated and untranslated. Everyone had prayers spoken or unspoken– some for families, some for peace, some blessing this congregation, and many for the strike end and that the workers can go back to work. As if replying to Rev. Peirce’s benediction, one worker explained himself saying, “If God is with me, who can be against me?”

After the service, workers loaded onto vans waiting to pick them up. They would head back to their homes—some of which are in danger of foreclosure—to shower and sleep until the following morning, when they would reunite for the next push of the march. Peirce would be on hand again to offer more prayers sending the striking workers off filled with spirit and focus to complete their journey. While only a brief respite, it served a much larger purpose.

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