Repairers of the Breach – LIJWJ Faith Conference in December!

This December we hope you’ll join the LIJWJ faith community, including co-sponsors the Poor Peoples’ Campaign, NYS Council of Churches, and Abraham’s Table, for an engaging and thought-provoking conference – “Repairers of the Breach”: How Faith and Community Partners Can Build a Just Long Island Economy. Repairers of the Breach is open to all clergy, congregants, and individuals from all faith traditions (and secular folks too!) interested in participating in discussions on the intersection of faith, solidarity, economics, and movement building.

Repairers of the breach seeks to be interactive and inclusive, featuring discussion and response panels to delve into topics with dynamic conversations with audience engagement. The day will start out strong with an opening plenary entitled “Creating a Just Economy: Interfaith Perspectives on Principles of Economic Justice.”  

Moderator: Jean Dougherty, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Smithtown

Interfaith Panelist:

• Cristian Murphy, Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood
• Rev. Angela Shannon, Assistant to Bishop of Metro NY
• Rabbi Lina Zebarini, Kehillath Shalom Synagogue
• David Sprintzen, Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island
• Reverend Dr. Madelyn Campbell, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington
• Isma Chaudhry, Islamic Center of Long Island

Worker Panelists:

• Miguel Alas Sevillano, Workplace Project
• Claire Leon, 1199 SEIU Delegate

This discussion will address the core principles of economic justice in each of the represented faith traditions. The panels will tackle the questions of “How does your tradition define economic justice?” and “What are the core principles of economic justice found in your tradition?” Answers to these questions, and possible even more questions from the discussion of them, will inform and help develop subsequent discussions throughout the day.

Stay tuned for more info and a registration link! In the mean time SAVE THE DATE!!

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Unemployment Bridge Campaign Launch!

Save the date and join the LI Fund Excluded Workers (FEW) Coalition on Tuesday November 19 to launch our 2024-25 Unemployment Bridge Program (UBP) campaign!

750,000 workers in New York are not eligible for Unemployment Insurance simply because of the way they are classified. Freelancers, cash economy workers, formerly incarcerated people and undocumented workers are left out in the cold when they lose work through no fault of their own. Meanwhile, executives making six or seven figures ARE eligible to collect benefits even if they have millions in the bank.

If you agree these injustices are unacceptable – that our communities’ most vulnerable workers deserve the MOST support rather than the least – then please join the LI FEW Coalition on November 19 and beyond to get excluded workers badly needed support they deserve and have worked hard for!

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Vote YES on Prop 1 this Election Day!Working people are immeasurably and infinitely diverse. Each person possesses their own unique identity. Each identity is a complex cocktail of things like gender, ethnicity, religion, economic class, lived experience, ability, and a long list of other constituent parts that relate to and interact with each other.  

Alongside this diversity are universals that apply to every single person. These universals include the right to have control over who you are, and what’s best for your body. Caring and just societies by definition should include these rights as a fundamental pillar in their structure. Those who have authority over our current society like to project it as caring and just, yet certain protections over our identities and bodies are not enshrined as fundamental rights. A ballot measure you can vote on this Election Day, Prop 1, would help provide protections not available currently.

NYCLU is an excellent resource to understand the current holes relating to identity and bodily autonomy rights in NY’s constitution, and how Prop 1 can fix them. The protections included in Prop 1 strengthen the position of all workers, union and non-union, by further reducing the way bosses can legally discriminate against them.

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice