INTERFAITH COALITION FOR WORKER JUSTICE
OF SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN

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What's New

Read two Sermons from the Immigrant Worker in the Pulpit, on the Bimah and in the Minbar Labor Day program HERE.

Read the new October 2007 ICWJ Newsletter HERE.

Support the Workers' Rights Center's Boycott at La Hacienda! For more info HERE.

ICWJ Campaigns
Superior Health Linens
As St. Mary’s Hospital held an “open house” to dedicate its $170 million expansion, community and faith activists gathered outside in the cold to decry the hospital’s “closed heart” attitude toward the working poor and uninsured. Protesters pointed to the $4.3 million in charity care that the hospital provided last year, compared to the estimated $22 million in annual tax exemptions from which it benefits.

To make their point, protesters set up an outdoor “health clinic for the poor and outsourced workers” where they gave bandages to those who can’t afford the real, costlier care offered indoors.

Judy Miner, a registered nurse, said, “I think that St. Mary’s has lost sight of its mission of serving the poor. The hospital should be offering much more free care to the uninsured and guarantee that its outsourced workers here in Madison can afford health care.”

The protest was a joint effort of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice and a union, Unite Here. The union is organizing with workers at Superior Health Linens, the Madison-based laundry that is used by St. Mary’s. According to a panel report released by County Chair Scott McDonell, some Superior workers have gone without needed medical care and have had their wages garnished to pay for medical bills.

Other research, published by Unite Here, has shown that the hospital has benefited from approximately $22 million in average annual tax exemptions and makes millions a year from patient care. In exchange, the hospital, according to its website, provided $4.3 million in charity care (free or subsidized care) in 2006. Financial documents published by the Wisconsin Hospital Association show that the hospital also had an unrestricted fund worth $224 million in 2005.

According to Patrick Hickey of ICWJ, “When you add up the value of the contributions, the tax exemptions, and other subsidies, St. Mary’s receives an enormous amount from the community. It should be doing much more for the working poor and the uninsured.”

For more information and a copy of the research on St. Mary’s tax exemptions and income, go to http://haveaheartstmarys.info

Immigrant Workers in the Pulpit/on the Bimah/on the Minbar
Labor Day is a time for those of us in the faith community to celebrate working people and our contributions to our society, to remember struggles that workers endured to achieve the many benefits we now enjoy and to reflect on the current condition of workers in various industries not only in the United States but throughout the world who experience low wages, hazardous working conditions, discrimination, unfair treatment on the job, lack of health care benefits, the constant threat of unemployment and plant closure.

Immigrant workers experience some of the worst of these unjust working conditions. Therefore this Labor Day season Dane County’s local chapter of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice invites you to heed the call for faith communities to recommit ourselves to work for social justice, equality, the dignity and respect of all persons, economic justice and fair treatment in the workplace by participating in Immigrants in the Pulpit.
Click to find out more.

A Chance to Work/A Chance to Succeed
A Chance to Work/A Chance to Succeed is a coalition formed to educate the community about the negative impacts of arrest and conviction discrimination in employment in our community and to challenge and eliminate this form of discrimination.
Click to find out more.

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