Labor Day Lifestyles: Choose A Path

Susan Chambers. Joe Zarrella. These are two names you have probably never heard before, but are important to learn. Important, because in looking at the lives of these two individuals we see two very different understandings of the rights of the working class: One a witness to profit-making at all costs and one of humble service to one's neighbor.

Susan Chambers was recently promoted to be Executive Vice-President of Wal-Mart's "People Division." In short, this means she is in charge of human resources. Most of us don't know the Vice-President's of our own parent's companies let alone of some random store we shop at. So why does this matter?

Well, Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the USA (1 out of every 115 workers in the country are employed by Wal-Mart), so this company's decisions have an impact in many of our communities. According to an article from Wal-Mart Watch, Susan Chambers has a track record of putting the profit of Wal-Mart over the rights of Wal-Mart employees. (Remember these are the same people hired to help Wal-Mart make money.)

The article goes on to document the various ways in which Ms. Chambers guided Wal-Mart away from offering insurance benefits to their employees. All of Ms. Chambers actions took place while Wal-Mart's CEO made nearly 23 million dollars. These actions are emblematic of a disturbing trend in our economy: making money with little or no regard for the impact this has on individuals and communities.

Joe Zarrella recently died at the age of 93, and was one of the first recruits by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. In his life and service through the CWM Joe Zarrella devoted himself to the livelihood of our society's most vulnerable workers. Joe said in an interview once, "People would come, and they'd need a bed to sleep. Well, you can't turn somebody away. So you'd get up and give them your bed, and you'd sleep down in the office... If we had some money, we'd give them 30, 35 cents, whatever it was to get a bed in a flophouse." In sharp contrast to the lifestyle and career choices represented by Susan Chambers, the actions of folk like Joe Zarrella are emblematic of what is possible: that we are one human family and we ought to act accordingly.

Most of us celebrate Labor Day the first Monday in September, but lesser known is May 1st when much of the rest of the world celebrates and honors workers. So long as there are mega corporations and unorganized workers there will be an imbalance of power. We can abuse this power to take advantage of others or to invite others to flourish. On this Labor Day, you and I have been given a choice. We can follow the lifestyle represented by Joe or we can follow the path of Susan. Which will you choose?

Catholic Connection:

It should also be noted that the justice of a socioeconomic system and, in each case, its just functioning, deserve in the final analysis to be evaluated by the way in which man's work is properly remunerated [compensated] in the system... Hence, in every case, a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system and, in any case, of checking that it is functioning justly. It is not the only means of checking, but it is a particularly important one and, in a sense, the key means.
-- Laborem exercens by Pope John Paul II

Reflection Questions

In what ways is your life directly connected to the work done by others in your local community? National community? Global community? How can you respond in ways that honor the lives of those workers?

Join us in our Forum to discuss these questions!