"In accordance with the Word of God, we, as religious leaders, believe that all condominium workers should have job security, a living wage that allows them to meet the basic needs of their families, full health care benefits for them and their families with the dignity and respect that they deserve."

  Specifically, the religious leaders are calling on Continental to:

    * Send a letter to all employees in the buildings managed by Continental
      affirming their commitment that the Continental Group is not opposed
      to its employees forming a union.

    * Allowing Continental employees access to meet with union
      representatives in the buildings you manage on their breaks.

    * Stop holding mandatory meetings where Continental representatives
      counter the company's public claims of neutrality by trying to
      indoctrinate employees against the union.

    * Rehire those employees who the National Labor Relations Board has
      determined have been illegally fired or removed during this senseless
      conflict.

Since 2004, the Service Employees International Union, SEIU, has been seeking a free and fair means for the building service workers in Miami to express their desire to be represented by a union. The Continental Group -- South Florida's dominant building services conglomerate with more than 3,000 low-wage employees -- shouldn't create a coercive climate where workers cannot possibly make a free choice for how best to improve their lives.

The Clergy came to the Continental Group's headquarters to pray for the management and the workers and ask that we all remember the bitterness of low- wage work. Participants and the Continental Management were all asked to taste bitter herbs in the hope that we can rekindle the love that we need to light the way to a fair and free means for the workers to express their rights.

The South Florida Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice (SFICWJ) is a network of clergy and lay leaders representative of the interfaith community of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Hundreds of Clergy, lay leaders of faith-based organizations, and religious activists of Miami express their concern for the working poor through our efforts. The Committee's mission is to involve the faith community in issues that will improve the wages, benefits, and employment conditions of the workers, especially the low-wage workers of South Florida. For more information on this and other SFICWJ projects and programs see http://www.sficwj.org/.

Source: South Florida Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice

CONTACT: Bruce Jay, SFICWJ Coordinator, +1-305-576-5001, Ext. 28 or
interfaith@hscdade.org

Web site: http://www.sficwj.org/