Oregon Center for Christian Values

Occv held two educational forums in the fall of 2018. The first, "faith and why unions matter" was held on september 23, cosponsored by interfaith alliance on poverty, portland jobs with justice and ecumenical ministries of Oregon. Our keynote speaker, dr. martin hart-landsberg, professor emeritus of economics at lewis and clark college talked about the relationship between increasing income inequality and the decline of unions. The second forum, on october 28, "income inequality: how does this happen?" Featured robert reich's video "inequality for all", included a talk by daniel hauser from Oregon Center for public policy relating the video to what is happening in Oregon, and a faith perspective by rev. Andrew guthrie. Occv held its annual legislative forum prior to the opening of the legislative session. Legislators gave presentations on what their priorities were for the session and the bills likely to be considered. In addition, representatives from partner agencies gave presentations and served on panels with the legislators for question and answer time. Occv has supported the events of partners, by participating in planning and event logistics. We participated in the february interfaith advocacy day at the capitol, by serving on the planning committee and by endorsing the event. As active members of the faith labor committee of jobs with justice, we served on the planning committee for the annual faith labor breakfast. We wrote and published in our social media two position papers, "occv statement on nonviolence", where we advocated for non-violent resistance to injustice and oppression, and "occv racial justice statement", where we acknowledged the systemic racial discrimination that is very present in our society, and committed to actions to address the injustices of racism.as members of the faith labor committee, we support efforts by workers to form unions, and to bargain for better working conditions. We frequently join with other faith leaders in signing statements of support for the legitimate requests of workers, and take part in labor actions where people of faith can lend their voices in advocating for the dignity and rights of workers.