As the conference opened, Glenmary Father John Rausch, speaking on unemployment, said it is the community that gives people basic education, skill levels, work and moral values. Yet the community is often short-changed. Father Rausch told of a worker-owned sewing cooperative he started in Dungannon, W. Va., during 12 years of ministry in Central Appalachia. Co-op members pledged 10 percent of their profits to community work. People should work, Father Rausch added, for their livelihood, for self-fulfillment, to make a contribution to humanity.
Work is a positive activity.
Thomas Reuter also spoke on joblessness. Reuter is director of Samaritan House, a day facility in Atlanta which assists the homeless in finding employment and low-income housing. Samaritan House provides homeless people with showers, clean clothes and Marta tokens for job-hunting. That's what they collect after being hired at six dollars per hour. Taxes, rental for showers, and the price of meager lunch are deducted.