Labor, religious community team up

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1121-religious-unions-20101120,0,3502147.story

Hyatt protests point to renewed intersection between religion, unions

Labor movement, religious community team up in tough times

By Julie Wernau, Tribune reporter

11:58 a.m. CST, November 20, 2010

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he wasn't just making history, he was organizing a labor movement, said the Rev. Lillian Daniel.

"It was the very first strike, and they won," the Glen Ellyn pastor boomed during an interfaith prayer service of union members held outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

Hyatt's owners, locked in contract negotiations with Unite Here Local 1, increasingly are being criticized by religious leaders siding with the hotel workers. Such protests illustrate the labor movement's increasing propensity to team picket signs with prayer shawls.

In September 2009, two dozen religious leaders joined the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in a 36-hour vigil in solidarity with employees at Resurrection Health Care, the largest Catholic health care system in Chicago. In June of this year, a delegation of more than 100 religious leaders stormed Hyatt's first shareholders meeting, singing a psalm.