Wal-Mart, EFCA, and Health Care

The first couple of weeks of my internship at Workers Interfaith Network in Minneapolis have been exciting!!

This spring, United Food and Commercial Workers reached out to several Wal-Mart employees in the Twin Cities. Many workers at a nearby Wal-Mart have expressed desires to organize, so Wal-Mart's corporate anti-union team from Bettonville, Arkansas is running anti-union campaigns in the store. Today, Workers Interfaith Network led a delegation with religious leaders into the store to ask the manager if we could speak with the Bettonville team. Supposedly, we will hear from the corporate team soon. The delegation was a good step because it showed those Wal-Mart workers who want to organize that they have community support.

Last week, I participated in an action at the capital. Minnesota's governor just cut a state health insurance program that provides health insurance for 30,000 people that make less than $8,000 per year. Hundreds of people from different faiths wore all black and carried flowers in a procession from a nearby church to the capital. The point was to mourn the deaths and suffering that will result from the cuts in health care. It was exciting to see hundreds of people speak up for the people that will be affected by these inhumane budget cuts.

Besides working on Wal-Mart related projects, I have called several religious leaders to ask them to sign-on to a letter to show their support of the Employee Free Choice Act. It's hard for me to believe that I only started here a few weeks ago!