On May 17 the Indianapolis Clergy Committee, a project of Interfaith Worker Justice and in partnership with Faith Community Labor Coalition, engaged in acts of civil disobedience to dramatize the plight of Indianapolis janitors who are seeking collective bargaining rights through a labor union. Those participating clergy were:

• Rev. Darren Cushman-Wood, Speedway UMC
• Fr. Tom Fox, Archdiocese of Indianapolis
• Rev. C.J. Hawking, United Methodist Church
• Rev. Linda McCrae, Central Christian Church
• Rev. Leon Riley, Disciples of Christ

Each was arrested after blocking the entrances to Market Tower, an office building occupied by many powerful law firms, businesses and politicians, including the offices of Sens. Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh.

The target of this protest was EMS, a company that provides janitorial services to Market Tower, Children’s Museum, IPL, and the Indiana Farm Bureau, to name just a few. While other janitorial companies have agreed to begin negotiations with the union representing hundreds of low-wage janitors, EMS has refused to come to the table, and H.D.G. Mansur, which owns Market Tower, refuses to hire a responsible contractor.

These clergy did not take their action of civil disobedience lightly. They first negotiated with EMS and Mansur to allow their janitors the right to collective bargaining. They viewed non-violent civil resistance as the only alternative to stop the systematic harassment of employees who seek nothing more than fair pay and improved working conditions.

During their 11 hours in police custody, they witnessed cruel treatment by jailers of persons charged with minor criminal offenses. They forged a bond with others in the lockup, prayed with and counseled them, inspired by the words of Martin Luther King written from a Birmingham jail in 1963. Dr. King willingly accepted the ordeal of jail to arouse the conscience of what he called the white moderate community, which at the time seemed to him to be more devoted to “order” than to justice. He decried the “appalling silence of the good people”, who seemed willing to accept injustices of Birmingham’s white power structure.

The members of the local clergy ironically served more jail time than did Scooter Libby, whose lies led this nation into a war that has cost not only thousands of lives but American prestige throughout the world. These clergy deserve the praise of all who believe in social justice and who believe that employers have a moral responsibility to treat their workers with dignity and pay them a wage that allows them to become productive and contributing members of our community.

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