June 8, 2006
The Executive Committee of the United Church of Christs
Executive Council on June 6, 2006, reaffirmed Hartford as the
site for the denominations biennial General Synod in 2007.
Holding the General Synod in Hartford became questionable
when a labor dispute emerged at the citys convention center, the
original venue for the meeting. Owners of the newly constructed
convention center, as well as the adjacent Marriott Hotel, site
of both the annual meeting of the UCCs Connecticut Conference
next fall and the denominations General Synod 26 in June 2007,
refused to enter into a labor peace agreement to allow workers
at both facilities to decide whether to unionize without fear of
reprisal.
The only other option within the city capable of
accommodating General Synod, the Hartford Civic Center,
initially proved too expensive. As directed by the Executive
Council, UCC Associate General Minister Edith Guffey began
exploring other cities as possible venues for the General Synod.
However, on June 2, the Connecticut Economic Development
Authority (CEDA) announced the awarding of a grant to the
Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau to provide
incentives for groups to hold conventions in the city. The
Visitors Bureau offered to use this grant to offset the fee
charged to the UCC by the Hartford Civic Center, thereby making
it possible for General Synod to remain in Hartford, along with
the estimated $5-to-$10 million in revenue that the event would
bring to the city.
Since its inception, the UCC has been supportive of workers
workplace struggles. The UCC Council for Christian Social Action
(1958) opposed right-to-work laws and supported the concept of a
closed shop so that all workers in a bargaining unit would pay
dues in support of the unions activities on their behalf.
In subsequent years (1979, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997,
1999, 2001) General Synod passed resolutions supportive of
worker rights.
In 1973, roughly 100 UCC members traveled from General Synod
to the Coachella Valley in California to stand with members of
the United Farm Workers of America when they were threatened
with violence in the fields.
Over the years, numerous officers, clergy, laypeople, and
staff of the UCC have endorsed particular labor struggles, stood
with striking workers, walked picket lines, participated in and
led labor-religious coalitions such as Jobs with Justice and
Interfaith Worker Justice, and celebrated Labor in the Pulpits
on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. (For more information, go to
http://www.ucc.org/justice/workers.htm.)
The UCC has long been on the record with its support of the
right of workers to organize if they choose without fear of
retaliation or intimidation, said Edith A. Guffey, the UCCs
associate general minister. This is a clear issue of justice,
and the kind of issue that the UCC has long been committed to.
Some have raised a question as to whether the arrangement
between CEDA and the Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau
violates the separation of church and state, an historic
principle to which the UCC has long been committed. The strategy
of governments offering economic incentives to large gatherings
is standard procedure in the convention business.
The reasons are obvious: In the case of the UCCs General
Synod, more than $5 million is expected to flow into the local
economy, providing important economic stimulus to an emerging
but still troubled urban economy and those citizens who rely on
such income for their livelihoods. Such incentives are offered
to for-profit and not-for-profit groups alike, to secular
organizations as well as religious organizations. In fact, the
UCC has frequently received incentives in the past from cities
eager to host our Synod. Without these incentives, it would be
more difficult for the UCC, and other religious bodies, to hold
large gatherings because of prohibitive fee structures for state
and municipal facilities.
It is important to note that the negotiated incentive
arrangement is between CEDA and the Hartford Visitors Bureau.
The UCC will not receive any funds from the state or the city.
The UCC could have pursued options in other cities, which may
have resulted in lower costs, but chose to honor its commitments
to the Connecticut Conference and the people of Hartford. As a
partner in ongoing negotiations to secure a labor peace
agreement with the convention center, the UCC will continue to
support the labor union, Unite Here, in its efforts to seek just
working conditions for hotel and convention center workers.
The UCC honors the principle of the separation of church and
state. The church also acknowledges that many UCC entities,
especially our health and human service institutions, have long
been recipients of state and federal funding to provide services
to those in need, as allowed under the law.
The church also has expressed its conviction that faith-based
programs funded by tax dollars not engage in proselytism,
require participation to engage in religious programs, or
discriminate in employment or client service based on race,
differing abilities, gender or sexual orientation. According to
Don Clark, the UCCs special legal counsel, the use of government
incentives for large-scale religious events represents a growing
legal edge in constitutional law. The UCC will await the outcome
of such determinations as they work their way through the
courts.
