Religious leaders help collect signatures for initiatives
By Peter Schworm and Katy Rushlau | Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent
November 10, 2013
Supporters of ballot initiatives to raise the state’s minimum wage by $2.50 an hour and require that all businesses provide workers with sick time have collected more than 200,000 signatures in a broad outreach effort supported by dozens of religious institutions.
“It’s an enormous task, and the religious congregations have been a big part of it,” said Lewis Finfer, director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network in Boston, a faith-based group that is working to put the issues on next year’s ballot. “It’s happening all over the state.”
In all, 100 congregations are taking part, many of them in cities where low wages are common, the group said. About 30 percent of jobs do not provide sick time, it estimated.
“Our faith moves us not just to compassion and charity, but to action,” said the Rev. Jane Gould of St. Stephen’s Memorial Episcopal Church in Lynn.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/10/religious-leaders-help-collect-signatures-for-ballot-initiatives/KPhMMBf8LODgIb8N2c13EN/story.html
