Io̧kwe! Hello!

I’m Rev. Jim Parrish, minister for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville, a city in northwest Arkansas (NWA). I’ve been the pastor there for six years, and my congregation and I are involved in a number of social justice works in the area. One justice area we participate in is helping the workers at the local poultry processing plants have a voice about harsh working conditions, unfair labor practices, and low wages. This means getting to know and understand our relationship with the Marshallese population who moved to NWA from their beloved islands to find work and good living conditions.

The Marshallese, along with Hispanic, Latinx, Black, and white workers, are the backbone of several large, multinational meat packing companies in the area, and it is well known that corporations will try to push unsafe line speeds and keep wages and benefits low so they make more profits. A few years ago the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), and Oxfam worked together to create a comprehensive survey of working conditions for poultry workers in Arkansas, and it showed that a lot of work needed to be done to make the industry safe, equitable, and healthy for its workers. An organization known as the Workers Justice Center with Magaly Licolli was prominent in this work in past years, and now she is part of forming Venceremos as a worker run collective to change the labor practices of these corporations by engaging their vendors and consumers in the fight for change. I, and my congregation, have  worked with Magaly and those organizations for the past 5 years as well as Albious Latior of the Marshallese community.

Albious has spoken at my Fellowship several times to introduce the Marshallese people, their history, and their special relationship to Northwest Arkansas to my congregation. We’ve kept them in our hearts, and had a number of special collections to support them in the past, and especially in this time of stress with COVID-19. Their thank-you singing in our sanctuary is a special treat, one they’ve shared with many organizations that have stepped up to support them.

The Marshallese, and other communities that depend on the poultry industry have been ill served by them, and illness and deaths in extended families has been exacerbated by production pressures. I, and my congregation have, and will continue to provide what support we can, and appreciate Albious working with Good Shepherd Lutheran as a central support supplier. 

It is my hope that Albious can bring his people’s story to prominence in NWA so that we see the inequities his people have had to deal with in their sojourn to Arkansas. And, we support Magaly and Venceremos in their efforts to broadly bring justice to the Marshallese, Latinx and other poultry workers in their work lives, so their family lives can be safe and happy.

My Unitarian Universalist beliefs compel me to work for the recognition of the worth and dignity of all people.  The story, the history of the Marshallese is the struggle of a gracious, happy people who have been transplanted by the horrific harm done to their nation by U.S. nuclear testing. I and my congregation hope, and will help, the Marshallese people of NWA claim their place as they wish in our society, to maintain their ways of being as a people, and make the culture of Arkansas richer for their contribution. We wish them peace and prosperity, and hope to get to know them better as the pandemic winds down and we can meet on common ground.

Peace,

Rev. Jim Parrish

Minister – Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville, Arkansas