From Interfaith Worker Justice:
Every morning, thousands of residential construction workers across the Phoenix and Las Vegas areas [as well as across the nation] wake up for another day of hard, dangerous work. They work long hours in difficult conditions in order to make ends meet for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, for too many, their labor is not rewarded adequately. Thousands of home construction workers labor at sites where employers do not follow health and safety regulations, fail to pay workers all the wages they are owed, do not offer affordable health insurance, and violate workers’ rights in a variety of other ways.
Workers at a number of subcontractors that do work for Pulte Homes in Phoenix and Las Vegas [as well as across the nation] have experienced systematic disregard for workers’ rights and basic human dignity. In December and January, Interfaith Worker Justice convened fact-finding delegations of religious leaders in both cities in order to find out more about the situation. Workers reported a number of serious problems, including unsafe and illegal working conditions, long hours, wages denied for overtime worked, and lack of health insurance. Some of the workers are attempting to organize unions in order to improve these conditions but have reported obstruction, harassment and intimidation by their employers.
In order to support these workers, Interfaith Worker Justice has produced a report based on the fact-finding delegations. IWJ is also circulating a statement by religious leaders in support of the workers who build houses for Pulte.
I have joined in supporting the workers who build houses for Pulte Homes and ask you to do so as well by:
- Praying for the workers, their families, and company executives.
- If you are a religious leader, sign the religious leaders’ statement and fax it to 773-728-8409, or fill out the form and mail it to IWJ. The address is on the form.
- Write to Pulte CEO Richard Dugas and urge him to ensure that Pulte’s subcontractors respect workers’ rights. Mr. Dugas can be reached at the following address: Richard Dugas, Chief Executive Officer, Pulte Homes, 100 Bloomfield Homes Parkway, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304.
Recall that the PNCC was founded by hard working immigrants, just like those who are being victimized to this very day. As a member of the PNCC I am well aware of my responsibility to lift up all mankind because all have sacred dignity before God. Recall also that two tenants of the PNCC Confession of Faith state:
I BELIEVE that all peoples as children of one Father, God, are equal in themselves; that privileges arising from differences in rank, from possession of immense riches or from differences of faith, sex and race, are a great wrong, for they are a violation of the rights of man which he possess by his nature and the dignity of his divine origin, and are a barrier to the purposeful development of man.
I BELIEVE that all people have an equal right to life, happiness and those ways and means which lead to the preservation of existence, to advancement and salvation, but I also believe, that all people have sacred obligations toward God, themselves, their nation, state and all of humanity.
This is our faith.