The following remarks were delivered by the Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland at the Minimum Wage Increase – Bill Introduction Press Conference, hosted by Raising Wages NC. To watch the full […]
The annual HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) Moral March and People’s Assembly 2021 is happening virtually and online this year. Due to Covid, we cannot gather on Fayetteville Street, but there […]
My faith tradition professes that our worth is in our faces because our faces look like God’s face. We are created in the Image of God, making each human face […]
It has been 10 years since Congress raised the minimum wage. Some states have raised their minimum without a federal mandate, but not North Carolina. This 10-year span follows on […]
It has been 10 years since Congress raised the minimum wage. Some states have raised their minimum without a federal mandate, but not North Carolina. This 10-year span follows on […]
Join the Council and Raising Wages NC for a statewide lobby day at the North Carolina General Assembly. Make your voice heard by encouraging your representatives to support a raise […]
Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing and does not give them their wages. Jeremiah […]
The Council is partnering with Raise the Wage NC to encourage faith communities to hold a Labor Sabbath this Labor Day weekend, September 1-3. Faith leaders can adapt their holy […]
The budget blueprint for 2018 released by President Trump on Thursday cuts a wide swath through programs that serve women, people of color, those of low income (for poor women […]
Remarks delivered by Executive Director Jennifer Copeland at a press conference on fair wages on March 8, 2017. Today is a day without women. Across the world women have been […]
Sometimes God whispers. Whether through hymns or homilies or kids dancing their way down the aisle to children’s chapel. Sometimes God shouts. Through the amplified suffering of others, known or […]
Our friend Rob Schofield over at Policy Watch wrote a column on Tuesday that was as vitally important in its truth-telling as it was hard to read for the future […]
At another time in my life, I would not have spent most of Saturday occupying my tiny square of personal space in the heart of Washington DC, literally shoulder to […]
Groups at the state and national level continue to mobilize around concerns about President-Elect Donald Trump’s stated policy objectives and choices for cabinet posts. The NC NAACP, Interfaith Power & […]
The NC Council of Churches has never taken peace for granted. Indeed, along with our work in opposition to violence, there has long been the recognition that peace manifests itself […]
We work toward a church that is all-loving. That’s what we’ve always done and that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Stay connected with the Council to learn about opportunities […]
As the 2016 campaign season grinds along the final stretch toward Election Day on Nov. 8 – and with thousands of North Carolinians already having cast their ballots – we […]
Let’s assume the worst, which for the moment would mean that the N.C. Senate’s version of a new state budget sails through to enactment without change or compromise. The sun, […]
The update is compiled on a volunteer basis by George Reed, the Council’s retired executive director. Weekly Update May 25, 2016 (Legislators’ identifications are listed only the first time they […]
The update is compiled on a volunteer basis by George Reed, the Council’s retired executive director. Weekly Update May 17, 2016 The deadline for introduction of most new bills into […]
Worker Memorial Day is April 28, a day when we remember workers who have lost their lives providing goods (buildings, roads, food, clothing, etc) and services (caring for our children, […]
I do not believe that I am the only one who feels a little hopeless right now. Members of the news media bombard us with news of the attack on Brussels, […]
Join the NAACP, NC Council of Churches, and other coalition partners for the Tenth Annual Moral March on Raleigh. Historic Thousands on Jones Street 2016 takes place on Saturday, February 13; […]
A lot of times in the work that we do at the Council we preface our comments, blogs or presentations with the words, “it’s complicated”. The Syrian refugee crisis is […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Last week brought the welcome news that Wake County’s commissioners had voted unanimously to raise the county’s lowest-paid workers up to what commissioners calculate […]
Pope Francis has offered us a message encouraging us to actions that reflects a commitment to dignity and respect for all workers. As the Advent season approaches, gift giving becomes […]
Jesus does not care about your latte. Your frappuccino, cappuccino, or mocha, either. At least, he doesn’t care about the cup it is served in and whether it’s branded to […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director, NC Council of Churches Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, one of the Council’s eight member congregations, has become the first […]
Monday, September 7 is Labor Day when we should honor the workers in our community with dignity and respect. The Social Creed for the 21st century, a document endorsed by […]
The Sunday of Labor Day weekend is Labor Sunday, a day to celebrate workers and their contributions and to support their struggles. It is also a day to commit ourselves […]
The Council’s Farmworker Ministry Committee has long been supportive of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and its efforts on behalf of those who work in the fields. The Committee has […]
The Council of Churches’ Legislative Seminar – its top-profile public event of the year – is meant to inform, and it’s meant to inspire. We’re not too bashful to say […]
Lots of us will have our attention focused on taxes over the next couple of weeks. This focus provides a unique opportunity for faith communities to help North Carolinians make […]
The mission of the NC Council of Churches extends into many areas that highlight the links between faith and public policies. And of the various events and activities sponsored by […]
Join us on April 14 at Greenwood Forest Baptist Church in Cary for the Council’s 2015 Legislative Seminar. Held every two years, the Seminar equips people of faith with the […]
Apparently I scare Civitas. Maybe it’s my upbringing. I was raised by a single mom (my parents divorced when I was a toddler) who was fortunate to have a solid […]
Of the many decisions and activities that unfold in the arena of public affairs, the ones that tend to show up on the NC Council of Churches’ radar are those […]
What do Tuesday’s elections mean for North Carolina? How can people of faith in the state continue to affect positive change? Join the staff of the North Carolina Council of […]
On September 16, two former NC Council of Churches President were among a select group of 13 religious leaders who met with US Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to discuss how […]
As Labor Day weekend quickly approaches, many people are thinking about beaches and barbeques. Amy Laura Hall, however, wants people to be thinking about something different: labor unions. Hall, a professor […]
“There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American whether he [or she] is a hospital worker, laundry worker, […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness co-hosted a youth conference on Saturday, July 12, with Empowering Word Ministries in Wadesboro. I was honored to be able to participate as a PHW intern. […]
Healthy North Carolina 2020 is a health improvement plan for our state. It addresses a wide range of issues that impact our health, such as tobacco use, physical activity and […]
Recently, I received a notice from a local community garden organizer about a grant opportunity sponsored by a fertilizer company. I shared it with my e-mail group and found one […]
A cross-section of North Carolinians and progressives from other states flooded downtown Raleigh on Saturday as part of HKonJ 2014. Longtime activists from across the state walked with college students, parents […]
It’s now just four weeks until this year’s HKonJ People’s Assembly. There is nothing more important for people of faith to do this winter as we work for prophetic social justice than […]
As Christians, we are called to pay just wages. In Scripture, the Book of Timothy says, “The laborer deserves [their] wages.” James reminds us that fraudulent pay reaches God’s ears, […]
Andres Sandoval went to a doctor in Benson, North Carolina four years ago complaining of stomach aches and difficulty sleeping. He was diagnosed with leukemia, and as a pesticide applicator, […]
With Halloween upon us and holiday baking not far behind, think in terms of fair-trade chocolate and other ingredients for sharing and for cooking. According to Vince Isner in the October […]
One in four children in North Carolina is at-risk of hunger. Yet the House of Representatives will soon take up a bill that will cut $40 billion from the Supplemental […]
Date: Proper 21 – Sep. 29, 2013
Topic: A Living Wage
Focus Text: Luke 16:19-31
We were on our tour bus, about to leave the dorm where we had been staying, when a few of us saw her. She looked about sixty years old, and she looked like she could have been my grandmother. She came quietly around the corner of the building, went straight to the big trashcan, and started digging out our thrown-away lunches. She put what she could find in a bag, and she was gone. Sheltered life that I had led, I had never before seen someone using a trashcan as a food source.
Somewhat lost this summer amidst all the conversation about comprehensive immigration reform is a little-known bill called the “Agricultural Guestworker Act” (or “Ag Act,” HB 1773) that has already passed out of the House Judiciary Committee. This harmful bill is a thinly veiled attempt to strip farmworkers of the few rights they have on the job while propping up agribusinesses’ bottom line.
The impact of Moral Mondays continues to extend beyond North Carolina. Two recent articles and an editorial in “The New York Times” are reaching a national audience. One of the […]
NCCC Volunteer Program Associate Sandy Irving was arrested at the June 24 Moral Monday. Thirty-five years ago today, I became a mother—and in these last 35 years, I’ve spent a […]
David LaMotte, the Council’s Consultant for Peace, celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday with his four-year-old son and 82-year-old dad. David then traveled to Raleigh with his father so that the […]
The North Carolina NAACP, building on four weeks of Moral Monday demonstrations, has launched a 25-city statewide tour reaching from Elizabeth City to Hendersonville. The Forward Together Movement Local Organizing […]
Faith leaders in Asheville are adding their voices to those outraged by the actions of NC legislators. Rev. Joe Hoffman, pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ and an […]
Pediatrician and author Perri Klass has written a powerful essay on childhood poverty as a disease. She writes in part: Toxic stress is the heavy hand of early poverty, scripting […]
As many of you already know, Rev. William Barber and the state NAACP are organizing weekly protests at the General Assembly, voicing opposition to the direction our state is being […]
Last week, members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) joined allies and activists from across the state in protesting Reynolds American Inc.’s treatment of farmworkers. Last year, Reynolds earned $1.3 billion in profits, but the company has hesitated to take proactive steps in guaranteeing good housing and fair pay to the workers at the very heart of its supply chain. Here at the NC Council of Churches, we have long supported farmworkers’ rights to living wages and dignity on the job. No one should have to work in slave-like conditions to provide for their family. Corporations should take responsibility for their supply chains, and the people whose labor makes possible their profits.
Gun bills that extend the availability and use of guns flood the General Assembly.
For decades, we’ve been working toward equal pay and equal treatment for women in the workplace. Sadly, there is still much progress to be made – illustrated by this powerful graphic below created by Kayla Evans.
Congress is overwhelmed with lobbyists for corporations, Chambers of Commerce, AARP, the Department of Defense, etc. But those living in poverty are short on lobbyist as the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ […]
Kim Bobo, a religious and workers’ rights activist and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, will meet with other faith and worker rights activists in the Triangle this week to […]
Farmworkers are some of our nation’s most vital workers, as their labor enables us to enjoy high quality, low-cost, fresh fruits and vegetables all year round. Despite farmworkers’ economic and cultural contributions to the communities where they live and work, they continue to be the some of the lowest paid, least protected, and unhealthiest workers in the United States.
Recently, I heard a powerful message from the Rev. William Barber. Many Council folks know him. He’s the President of the NC NAACP and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciple of Christ) in Goldsboro. The power of his message was not in fiery delivery. It was a low-key conversation with a group of fifty or so progressive leaders, sitting in a circle in the chapel of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill. The power was in the profound thoughts he expressed and in the clear rightness of his words.
From Acts of Faith: Free Lectionary Resources for Prophetic Worship
Date: 2nd Sunday after Easter, April 15, 2012
Topic: Living Wages
Focus Text: Acts 4:32-35
From the pastoral reflection: “As Christians, we attempt to recapture the vision of work as related to the creating, sustaining, and transforming work of God. Our vocation is not defined simply by our paid employment. What we do at home, in churches, in our volunteer and political activities, all contribute to the “work” that embraces the whole of our lives.”
Lynice Williams died this weekend. Too soon by any measure. She was one of this state’s great advocates for and organizers of people of low income and low wealth. Among […]
With too many North Carolinians jobless, the North Carolina Council of Churches is releasing a newly revised version of its popular “Job Loss: A Guidebook for Pastors” eight years after the original was published. The revised version is available for free download on the Council’s website.
The 2012 Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) People’s Assembly is this Saturday, February 11. We’ll gather at Shaw University in Raleigh starting at 9:30 and march to the Legislative […]
A new report by the Trust for America’s Health examines how the health of a community affects its ability to attract new businesses and to ultimately stimulate economic growth. Businesses […]
The Sanford Herald
Giang said N.C. MedAssist representatives wanted to travel to each county to meet with eligible residents and explain the enrollment process. The organization contacted the North Carolina Council of Churches and expressed interest in partnering with faith-based organizations willing to host one-day enrollment programs. The Rev. Mechelle Myers of Sanford’s New Endland AME Zion Church received an e-mail from the Council about the initiative and was the first person to respond.
Harvest of Dignity is a new, original documentary created in 2011. It focuses on the lives and work of farmworkers in North Carolina, providing an in-depth portrait of the people who harvest our food today. It combines interviews with North Carolina farmworkers, advocates, faith leaders and educators, documentary photos and interviews collected by Student Action with Farmworkers interns and clips from the original Harvest of Shame documentary.
A Theological Companion to Making Ends Meet After the Great Recession: The 2010 Living Income Standard
This new resource is meant to bring the issue of wages into conversation with theological perspectives of economic justice. Workers Are Worth Their Keep is divided into three main sections. The first section highlights passages from the Bible that speak directly about economic justice, fair pay for workers, and the call of God to treat workers with dignity. The second section examines the perspectives of several major figures from Christian traditions. While their contexts vary greatly, their voices converge around the calling to pay workers wages that are fair and just. The third and final section of this resource quotes from official statements from many of the denominations represented in the NC Council of Churches.
As a society, we decided 75 years ago that child labor needed very strict guidelines to make sure that education comes first and to prevent abusive conditions. The only problem? Children in agriculture were exempted from these protections, in part because most farms were small family operations that needed everyone’s help. Today, mass-scale agribusiness has replaced family farms. But the exemption allowing child labor on farms has remained, meaning that there’s a good chance that pint of blueberries you’re enjoying was hand-picked by 12- and 13-year olds – legally. These same children are too young to work in any other industry.
There was a great turnout for Saturday’s HKonJ5. Thanks to all of you who attended and marched.
Watch video of HKonJ here.
Fifty years after “Harvest of Shame,” not much has changed. Farm work remains one of the nation’s most dangerous industries. Here in North Carolina, dangerous conditions in the fields, poverty wages and substandard housing continue to threaten workers’ health and well-being. For example, workers often put in 14-hour days in bad weather – including extreme heat and rain. In North Carolina, 7 farmworkers died of heat stroke in a recent five-year span. They were literally worked to death. And heat stroke isn’t the only problem in the fields.
We were on our tour bus, about to leave the dorm where we had been staying, when a few of us saw her. She looked about sixty years old, and she looked like she could have been my grandmother. She came quietly around the corner of the building, went straight to the big trashcan, and started digging out our thrown-away lunches. She put what she could find in a bag, and she was gone.
Sheltered life that I had led, I had never before seen someone using a trashcan as a food source.
In his life and mission, Jesus saw himself as actively preparing and serving the kingdom of God on earth, to
be as it is in heaven. He saw all of his disciples in the same light and as having the same purpose. Nowhere
in the prayer instructions of Jesus is the focus on getting the earth–or ourselves–to heaven. The heart of
the Lord’s Prayer is a request for heaven on earth. While this difference may seem subtle, its truth is at the very center of the call and practice of prayer and discipleship.
A Living Wage for North Carolina: An Introduction is intended to be just that: an introduction. Exhaustive research abounds on the subjects of the minimum wage and living wage. Yet often these studies—while thorough and informative—assume that the reader has a certain level of expertise. This brief resource seeks to be a primer for readers who are interested in fair wages but do not have the background or resources available to conduct an independent investigation.
From the shadows of banking towers of Charlotte and Raleigh to the small towns and hamlets far away from the bustling Piedmont, the much-ballyhooed economy has not lifted all boats. Many people are working hard but are not earning enough to make ends meet in today’s economy. For this reason, a “living wage” movement is gaining momentum around the nation. This movement seeks to educate policymakers and the community about the true costs of making ends meet and to require that local governments and their contractors pay a living wage to their employees.
