February 2025 Generous Congregation Supports CLUE

CLUE Banner - Our Faith is Stronger than Corporate Greed

The goal of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) has always been to build a “Just and Sacred Society.” Since 1996, CLUE has worked to bring together clergy and lay leaders of all faiths with the marginalized, the unheard, and the least protected — low-wage workers and immigrants — in the cause of a just economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. Workers seeking justice face intimidation, unfair treatment, retaliation, and harassment, which rob them of energy. Then they often need to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Low-wage workers often suffer wage theft, and their low compensation may force them to choose between a 4-hour daily commute or substandard housing (or even sleeping in their cars). When they appeal for better wages or safer working conditions, they sometimes face retribution.

In the current economic and political environment, CLUE is stepping forward on many fronts:

  • CLUE Sanctuary & Response training flyeroffering support to those who have lost much or all in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena wildfires
  • proving training for congregations, faith leaders, and community organizers willing to offer sanctuary for immigrants facing deportation
  • partnering with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) in training and marching to show solidarity in the face of intimidation
  • continuing to support the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Professional Mental Health Workers strike

UUSM’s partnership with CLUE

Clergy and lay leaders are expert counselors, chaplains, and allies of people facing oppression. And faith communities have resources to directly help those facing hardship. By enabling an organized, connected, interfaith community focused on building an economy that works for everyone, CLUE builds the foundation for achieving living wages, affordable health care, workplace safety, sane scheduling, and a seat at the table in making decisions about working conditions. How does CLUE do it? Workplace by workplace: as workers develop a vision, local CLUE committees help them develop their voice and then amplify that voice with the power of scripture, love, and compassion. When the struggle is hard, CLUE offers courage and encouragement that they might persevere.

Our UU faith tells us that every person has worth and dignity, and we believe in equity, justice, and compassion. Our UU Santa Monica congregation has long been part of CLUE’s important struggles for justice.

  • Accompanying workers at the Bonus Carwash at Lincoln and Ashland as they sought to unionize, and raising awareness about wage theft and unsafe conditions in the industry that helped pave the way for new state regulations protecting carwash workers.
  • Supporting workers at countless Santa Monica hotels over many decades as they sought collective power and continue to use it to bargain for better wages and working conditions, including panic buttons to protect workers from sexual assault and safer room-cleaning policies that protect housekeepers from injury.
  • Walking with workers at the (in)famous Chateau Marmont as they spoke out against harassment and discrimination.
  • Celebrated in April 2024 when CLUE announced that ALL of the union hotels in Santa Monica had agreed to provide life-changing wages, benefits, and other historic protections to their workers.

Generous Congregation

Our practice here at UUSM is to dedicate half of our non-pledge Sunday offerings to organizations doing work in the world that advances our Unitarian Universalist principles; the other 50% of the offering is used to support the life of our church.

UUSM’s Generous Congregation program supports our church community. And together, we uplift the reach and impact of vital organizations doing work we could not do on our own. This month, half of our Sunday offerings will go to CLUE. Your donations will help strategize tactics for winning campaigns and support hotel workers, in intimate solidarity, to win real benefits for those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Please consider supporting the mission of our church, and CLUE. To give right now, text “$20 GCC” to 844-982-0209. (One-time-only credit card registration required.) Or visit uusm.org/donate and reference Generous Congregation. Thank you.

CLUE participating in anti-deportation protest in Santa Ana in 2021

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