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The MICAH Labor Committee was formed in the fall 2000. Its
goal is to provide an independent voice that can defend the
rights of workers from our congregations, and in the entire
community.
An initial concern of the Labor Committee has been Wisconsin's
recently-revised law concerning bankruptcies. Since 1998,
when a company goes bankrupt, banks have first claim on the
remaining assetts of the company, even ahead of workers. That
is, workers are not paid for the days, weeks, and even months
that they worked prior to the company's failure. In the case
of Steeltech and Pfister & Vogel/Gebhardt, this has meant
that hundreds of workers have been left without paychecks,
even as multi-billion dollar corporations add to their profits.
The Labor Committee has recognized Firstar Bank as the party
responsible for spending thousands of dollars in a lobbying
effort to change the laws, so that they can elbow wage-earners
out of the way on their rush to collect money. The state legislature
is now actively considering changing the law back to what
it was until 1998.
The MICAH Labor Committee was also part of the effort to
inform homecare workers of their right to organize. A first
group of homecare workers in Milwaukee County has won an election
to form a union. The Labor Committee will continue to address
a variety of issues, large and small, that affect the working
people of our community.
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