McHenry County Faith Community to Call for Worker Justice at Woodstock Wal-Mart

On Wednesday June 5, members of several local congregations will hold a prayer vigil and deliver a letter and petition to the manager of the Woodstock Wal-Mart in solidarity with the millions of Wal-Mart store and supply chain workers fighting for dignity and respect on the job.

People will gather at the Wal-Mart Super Center, 1275 Lake Avenue from 3:15 to 5:30 to hold a prayer vigil and deliver of letter to manager of Woodstock Wal-Mart.

Among the participants will be Ann Legg, Chair, Compassion, Peace and Justice Team, Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church; Emmett and Nancy Fleming, members, Holy Family Catholic Church, Inverness; and members of other churches in Woodstock, Crystal Lake and McHenry including members of the Social Justice Committee of the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

Through the Organization United for Respect (OUR Walmart), associates have been standing together and speaking up for change. In response, Wal-Mart has retaliated against and attempted to silence those who speak out. But, Wal-Mart workers will not be silenced.

On May 28, hundreds of Wal-Mart workers traveled from their respective cities to Bentonville, Ark., in time for the retail giant’s June 7 shareholder meeting.  As the largest employer in the U.S., Wal-Mart has kept far too many families and communities in poverty with jobs that pay an average of $8.81/hour.  The National Day of Action and the protest in Bentonville will amplify a long-standing call for Wal-Mart to commit to improving wages and working conditions for its store and supply chain workers.

Interfaith Worker Justice, which is supporting the workers in these actions educates, organizes and mobilizes people of faith in support of economic justice and worker rights. Today there are more than 70 affiliated organizations in the IWJ network, including a variety of interfaith groups and more than two dozen worker centers.

For more information, please visit www.iwj.org or contact Ann Legg at 815 338-4838.

Weekly Vigils Will Bring the Occupy Movement to McHenry County

McHenry County residents will now have a way to participate in and support Occupy Wall Street and the popular movement of protests that has spread around the country.  Weekly road side vigils will be held every Saturday at 1 PM beginning November 12 on the sidewalk along Lake Street outside of the Woodstock Wal-Mart.

Organizer Ann Legg, a veteran local activist for peace and social justice, was inspired by a similar regular vigil being observed by Occupy Elgin on the Kimble Street bridge in that city.  She also drew on her experience with the McHenry County Peace Group, which held similar weekly vigils in all sorts of weather through the first several years of the Iraq War.

The vigils will last about an hour.  Participants are asked to bring signs.  “We want to let people tell their own stories about why they are there—unemployment, home foreclosure, lack of health care, small businesses squeezed by big banks, student loan indebtedness, you name it,” Legg said.

The Wal-Mart location was chosen not only for its high visibility on a busy street, but because the discount store chain, owned and operated by one of the wealthiest families in America, is a symbol for many of the “corporate greed” which has plunged the nation into crisis.  “The stores have forced independent Main Street merchants out of business, contributed to the demise of American manufacturing by buying almost exclusively from China and the third world suppliers, exploited the workers in those countries in near slave-like conditions, and paid low wages with few benefits to it ‘associates’ while fiercely battling any attempt to unionize,” Legg said.

And don’t forget the Rally by the 99% of McHenry County in Support of the Occupy Movement the following Tuesday, November 15 from 5-6:30 PM in front of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock.  Bring a donation of supplies for the people at Occupy Chicago.  Hats, gloves, wool socks, coats, blankets, and all sorts of cold weather gear are particularly needed. 

Two great opportunities to get involved.

For more information on the Occupy McHenry County vigils call Legg at 815 338-4838 or e-mail her at aglegg@sbcglobal.net.

For information on the Rally by the 99% sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Woodstock call Patrick Murfin at 815 814-5645 or e-mail pmurfin@sbcglobal.net .