Let Justice Roll - Raise the State and Federal Minimum Wage

Faith, wages topics of forum
By Tony Waggoner
Enid News, 11/24/07

Local faith leaders and community members will gather Tuesday at First United Methodist Church to discuss faith, wages and poverty in a “People of Faith for Fair Wages” forum.

The forum, which will be 7 to 9 p.m. at the church, 401 W. Randolph, will be held to increase awareness and education of the connection between low wages and poverty. It also will provide an opportunity for alternate views to be discussed.

The Rev. Alfred Baldwin, of First Missionary Baptist Church, will begin with a keynote speech outlining an alternate faith-based view of the issue, instead of one that is economical or political.

“Through my work, I have become familiar with the problem that citizens have when wages are low,” Baldwin said. “It is tough to make car payments, house payments or rent, and the dream of a nice home, job or car just isn’t there if you’re working full time at a low-paying job.”

Some companies and churches already are taking steps to improve wages.

Earlier this year, the regional levels of the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church became the first denominations in Oklahoma to pass living wage resolutions. The resolutions will pay all church employees a living wage by 2009.

Advance Food Co., whose corporate office is in Enid, is helping increase wages by regularly reviewing its wage plans and making wage increases as the company grows. In a recent wage review, the company increased plant wages $1 per hour with an attendance bonus. Advance will be one of the companies taking part in the forum.

“I look forward to participating as a panelist and having dialogue about wages,” Brian Hayden, Advance vice president, said about the forum.

Thousands of families in Enid have both parents working full time and are living paycheck to paycheck. Workers and families are not finding much money left after bills are paid, and wages remain low as the increase in heat and gas costs this winter looms. This is an issue Karen Spradlin, project coordinator of Let Justice Roll, is well aware of.

“We are talking about our neighbors who do their jobs, raise their families and keep the world going,” she said. “A job should keep you out of poverty, not in it.”

The forum will be the fifth of six similar forums across the state.