Labor Day 2024 Sermon Only

God gave us a Sabbath day for rest but labor gave us too if it were not for the hard work of the labor Movement we would still be working six days a week with no caps on ours but thank God and the movement for giving us 40 hours work week of a of a work week 40 hours that's a full week folks we don't have to go 90 and weekends off so now we have to remember to take those days we need to remember to rest because all of us need it and also work to ensure that everyone receives those same benefits um as the Reverend Terry Le page mentioned in her sermon we support an organization called clergy and Lady United for economic Justice clue I have long been a part of this organization one of the early Founders here in Orange County just under 20 years ago and that's afforded me the opportunity to work with Incredible leaders in our community I'm very excited this morning to get to introduce you to Sylvia Hernandez and to also welcome one of our own members and our myp staff member Dustin WN who has gotten involved with clue and has also worked on queer organizing with the organization and as you may or may not know in addition to his work in a Ministry he's also an actor he has a unique role as a voiceover actor and he's going to tell us more about that as well as address a very interesting and important labor issue in his field and many the use of AI artificial intelligence and in his case how it affects workers like him but first I want to introduce you to Sylvia whose bio is so impressive sit down because you have such a long bio no you can hang it out she hails from Waka she studied education at Benita naal and pedagogi Aton de Mexico in Mexico City and she says that coming to the United States was a stark contrast starting from zero by cleaning houses and babysitting and doing other basic skills jobs she became a receptionist at seciu local 1877 and worked her way up to become an organ organizer for janitors right here in Orange County Community is very important for her she was one of the founders of Centro Cal de Mexico and Santa Ana you might be familiar with it um she helped to strengthen k Community it helps with getting back to those core cultural values which is so important she's kept herself actively involved in community organizing with different organizations um has had roles like the president of the board of cooperation in Santa Ana she's helped to develop develop other cooperativos here in the county like the mobile car clean wash um first she did it here in 2020 but she was a part of it in Los Angeles which got a lot of press um she's a member of the esparanza tenants unit Union which means hope and um helps to inform folks of their tenant rights which is so important advocates for better regulations like rent control and Santa Ana she did that work in 2022 um she's continued to work with Santa Ana building Healthy Communities which is now called uh Community Hub and she's a member and organizer of nestos Manos a group of domestic workers in Orange County and she's part of the domestic workers Coalition also does know your rights training so as you can see this is a woman who is very busy working hard and she works uh as an organizer professionally or I guess everything's professional in this way but she is part of she's an organizer um and part of her formal work is to help prevent injuries illnesses and deaths that are preventable in the workplace and advocating for that uh she's just does so much in the realm of justice and a perfect gift for us this morning we're here to listen to what you're doing she's actively working right now to try to pass SB 13504 domestic workers in California um and to get indoor heat protection for all workers so I think we'll hear a little about that and we're just so thrilled to have you so welcome Sylvia benos talk to us tell us [Applause] Buenas good morning thank you for this warm welcoming as I as rev Sarah said my name is Sylvia Hernandez and I am originally from Waka um since the early 90s mostly in Santana I've been living and organizing I think since I was very little like a child I went with my grandpa and my parents to talk to my neighbors we uh always um organize ourselves to resolve any issues in the community so since I understood that the word organize and organizes is the keyboard to resolve anything that we any situations that we have in the community we get together and we do take you something that we call take you and take you is something it's a work it's to work for uh for all for everyone it's not just working for yourself it's not an individual thing to do but it's a community Gathering where we work voluntary but with it's part of your values so well-being is for everyone in the community to me where I come from the idea of wellbeing is conceived by understanding that if my community is well my family will be well and then I will be well too so it's in the opposite it it was very U strange I I would say when I came here and everything it was kind of individual I'm going to get anything for me then for my family and then if I have time I will work with the community to me is the opposite I need to take care of my community and that environment it will um assure that my family is going to be okay and I am going to be great doing great so I left my town at the age of 10 years old because there's no more school over there at that time and I went to Mexico City to study and I became a teacher at the age of 18 and I went to work with the poorest people in the city uh so I participated in movements for the change in favor of fair wages for us the workers then um I developed my my deep vocation as an organizer and I understood that um I was going to do uh organizing Wherever I Go life brought me here to the United States and um continue doing that at the very beginning at the first day I went to talk to the Sisters of St Joseph they were developing a um curriculum for um leacy for workers so so I was volunteering U the work over there and um I think uh throughout my more than 50 years working um I have learned and and I've been guided for everyone who touched my life in this uh many years um everyone I I have this actitude that nobody knows more than you that everyone knows different things and when you meet someone you get to learn what the what that person knows because he or she or they can be in a different road that you have been so you just exchange your knowledge and so I am always open trying to learn from someone uh new and I've been meeting a lot of people the very good people here in this country um I I am respect the very different points of view than mine as a worker I believe that work dignifies the human being my grandpa used to say that you um you have to respect yourself and have dignity so a decent job with a disent payment for each one of us the workers can put food on our tables and we can have u a roof over our heads a safe roof we all can be um well and give including education to our children today we commemorate the fact that in 1894 Congress um decreed the first Monday of September as a federal federal holiday the same one that the first American Union unions had proposed to create since 1882 it took many years to create and recognize the contribution of workers to the country I want to express that we all deserve dignity and respect as workers regardless our race our color our identity economic in income cultural origin but only we deserve that because we are human beings I try to follow Jesus the son of God as my mentor because I like to think that of him that he is a great organizer he had us today all and every time that others need us so he make us wonder how we will solve our daily challenges he confront us when we do not apply our values as good Christians and show us the way listening without ignoring or following his bth without doing something first for each one of us for me his example is the call to take action every time I see an injustice he did that he was walking and looking every need and trying to so today in our reflection we thank workers for all that they produce or for the services they provide us in in our prayers goes out for a better economy and social justice for all workers but we will ask more for those who have fewer opportunities to improve their lives for those who have uh fewer laws to protect them or less acceptance and less support to Prevail and prosper as a former domestic worker I ask that today we put in our prayers the domestic workers who for 50 years now when the occupational safety and health administration OSHA was created to promote promote safe working conditions investigate safety complaints and prevent work workplace injuries all workers were included but these type of workers the domestic workers the people who worked in the house were excluded and now they are still refusing to include them in California the SB 1350 is uh a bill that would end part of the exclusion not all only 175 workers and we will ask God today that the governor nson signed it and does not bet as it um it did in the previous three years of our struggle this is the third time the third the fourth time that we are trying to pass a bill as a SOA Kos organizer SOA Kos is um uh in TOA coach we we always um believe that the every injury is prevented and we try to influence policy's decision affecting workers health and safety and we support every campaign trying to do that so as a So Co organizer for all workers from all Industries I invite you to advocate for regulations to prevent heat related deaths in indoor jobs we already have for um outdoor jobs but now we are fighting for those who work in IND doors like the janitors like the the cooks the warehouse workers the janitors for example at the time they go to work at 6: p.m. the buildings turn off the air conditioning and they work hard it's a physical work and they don't have access to water and then they have enough um time to to elevate their conditions because they have so many uh workloads um that they cannot have enough time to end so we need to keep them in mind our state campaign recently succeeded in getting the California government to pass regulations in kosia to improve conditions for indoor workers on June 20 um kosa uh they said that now we have regulation and establish this the safety measures required in indoor workplaces so this rule went into effect on July 23rd 2024 the California employers now they must follow four step steps they need to train know workers and supervisors about the provention on heat illness they need to provide enough cool water for each employee to drink at least a qu every hour and encourage employees to drink water too encourage employees to take cooling break in the shade for at least five minutes employees should not wait until until they feel sick to cool off and they need to devel and Implement written procedures to comply with Kia uh standards at the national level we are in the state of being heard ad hearing to express through our testimony why regulations for protections from intense heat in indoor workplaces are urgently needed today on Labor Day 2024 we ask God to grant us the grace to improve the conditions of millions of workers in need you can all support us by following our fire up heat Justice campaign organized for National Kos please sign the petition I will share the the the um online uh petition with Reverend Sara so we can pass it um it takes only 30 seconds another important bill is SV 2027 which has passed the Senate now but it's going to be in the Newsome's desk awaiting his signature we this week we work hard to ask Senators to join and support and this uh bill um it um is made up for over 150 organizations from across California and the Coalition Works to expand safety net programs for excluded immigrant workers such as the unemployment benefits program finally I want to acknowledge this community of the United Congressional Church of Irvine that in 2011 gave us shelter to spend the nights of the hunger strike that we workers and members of the orange count Community H for immigration reform I was one of them to spend the night here in this room I remember very well that time my deep gratitude for this church because I slept under a roof under the protection of God and with my hope always alive today the legalization of 88 million immigrants is possible registration has has existed as low for more than 100 years now but but if we can update that we can we can um legalize 8 million immigrants so um the fight is continue and we are tireless worried as workers we need to keep fighting for house fair housing for um medical medical uh Services we are excluded from many many things we don't have access the workers we don't have a living wage to provide everything to our families we must continue fighting until all workers are treated with dignity and respect thank you for having me [Applause] today earlier this week Pastor Sarah was scrambling to find someone to speak for labor in the pulpit and I was like boy do I have a solution for you hi my name is Dustin nwin um obviously I work here at church but outside of church I'm also a professional actor I'm a member of sag Afra The Screen Actors Guild American Federation of television and radio artists A labor union with approximately 160,000 members representing actors singers dancers broadcast journalists and so many other Professionals in the in entertainment and media after more than 18 months of contract negotiations with some of the biggest video game companies in the world video game actors like me are on strike the core issue boils down to AI artificial intelligence if the video game employers had their way they could create a digital AI replica of me and never have to hire me or any other human actor ever again this is an existential fight to be clear we're not striking to ban AI what we demand is the right to give or revoke consent over the use of our digital replicas and to be fairly compensated for each use the video game industry is a $300 billion industry significantly dwarfing the movie industry and of that actors only receive a uh of the money actors only receive a drop in the bucket despite the immense value that our performances add to games I rebuke the rhetoric that diminishes actors such as that of Amazon games CEO Chris Hartman who stated for games we don't really have acting really so as I rally my troops for the final battle knowing that this is the last time I'll be looking at some of their eyes I guess that's not acting as I take a punch to the face a sword to the stomach an arrow to the knee I guess that's not acting I'm thrilled to be in the Pulpit today of all days because this is a rare opportunity for me me to combine my two worlds which I never get to do anywhere else in the Bible we have a Hebrew term ruach which means breath air Spirit life every living being has this ruok this force of Life emanating from them when an when an actor performs they imbue their ruok into the role and this is what moves audiences an AI has no ruok it may be able to hit a correct St of pre-programmed emotions but it will never be able to breathe life into a performance and the Bible is on the side of economic Justice for workers Deuteronomy 24: 14-1 15 says don't oppress your workers pay them a fair wage Romans 4:4 says that a worker's salary is not a gift it's a debt to be paid so no more playing games it's time for the video game employers to come to the bargaining table to negotiate a deal that provides the protection and compensation that actors deserve we understand that this is a fight for our future we will not let this be our game over the actors United will never be defeated [Applause] thank you so much to our speakers to the organization clergy and Lady United for economic Justice that I have worked with and many of us have as well now as we continue our time I just want to bless all of you for putting in the work for being in church it is work sometimes and we're asking that of one another but we also remember that as we work we must be fed I hope that you have been fed spirit today but I also want to invite you back to the table that Jesus has prepared for all of us that we might remember that we have been called to work but we have also been called to rest to receive the sustaining Grace that as Hae reminds us that we are all called to receive the Forgiveness that can come at the table when we lift up our own cabili as we do in this nation and in our world for all of the ways that we have inadvertently bought into injustices that affect workers worldwide but we also come to this table knowing that God loves us for exactly who we are and redeems us so that we can redeem the world and so it was