
Our Story
CLUE is a powerful movement of people of faith in Southern California working to create an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.
As Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, we educate, organize, and mobilize faith leaders and community members to accompany workers in their struggle for good jobs, dignity, and justice.
Solidarity is Sacred:
CLUE works as a coalition of diverse congregations with a progressive agenda around workers’ rights and issues of economic justice. Clergy and lay people involved in this work occupy a very specific place within the larger social justice landscape, and they bring the following unique gifts to the struggle:
Religious Constituency:
Places of worship are social centers for large and diverse communities. In privileged areas, they provide a space for families to come together in worship. In poor neighborhoods, religious congregations are among the few functioning institutions.
Call to Humanity:
Faith communities call people of all races, occupations, and identities together to consider their place in the world and their responsibilities to each other, including seeking justice for each other. All walks of life, all nations, and all colors cross in pews and pulpits. And when we speak to the outside world, we are rooted in the conviction that faith demands justice always and everywhere.
Inspiration and Support:
Workers seeking justice face intimidation, unfair treatment, retaliation, and harassment, which rob them of energy. Clergy and lay leaders are expert counselors, chaplains, and allies of people facing oppression. And faith communities have resources to directly help those facing hardship.
Counter-messaging:
Employers discourage solidarity between the community and workers through messaging that portrays the struggle as a private competition between economic interests. We know better. Workers aren’t just workers – they are friends, neighbors, spouses, children, parents, and parishioners. When we speak out for them, we are helping our own and ourselves.
“Jesus of Nazareth said, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.’ The church cannot be the church unless we get into the marketplace and insist that work is dignity, and that every employee, every worker deserves those benefits that enables them to indeed attain an abundant life that is full of the spiritual riches as well as the riches of bread.”
– Rev. James M. Lawson Jr.

History
1996
Facing formidable opposition from local politicians and business leaders to a living-wage law in Los Angeles, progressive faith leaders and allies worked to convince a decisive majority of City Council members to support the measure and commit to overriding a threatened veto from then-Mayor Richard Riordan.

“We pray for the poor, the unemployed, the oppressed. But pushing for implementation of the Living Wage Ordinance is a way to do something.”
– Rev. Dick Gillett
The law passed in March 1997, assuring a livable wage for thousands and making it very clear that the progressive agenda had room—no, it needed—religious voices. A conversation began among clergy, social justice advocates and union members with a view to creating a faith-based nonprofit to organize the faith community to speak out for workers’ justice claims.
2000
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, a Lutheran pastor, became CLUE’s first full-time director. She developed a theory of social change, rooted in faith and scripture, that combines the moral authority and witness of faith traditions with real-world political advocacy for workers. The vision: creating a just and sacred society.
Those early CLUE clergy and lay leaders blocked streets, met with politicians, and opened space for negotiation among employers and workers, figuring in some of the most important social justice struggles in Southern California in recent decades.

2010s
We were a major force in the New Sanctuary movement that involved churches opening space for persecuted immigrants, helped with unionizing efforts in Santa Monica and Anaheim hotels and resorts, and advocated for important local and state laws that protect workers and immigrants, including a $15 per hour local minimum wage in Los Angeles and a state law that separates the function of local police and federal immigration agents.

CLUE also founded its Black Jewish Justice Alliance: a faith-rooted group fighting for economic opportunity and racial justice. CLUE has helped rebuild the historic social justice partnership between African-American and Jewish leaders, working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California (SCLC-SC), Dignity and Power Now, Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, and the Youth Justice Coalition. While there are plenty of differences, those should not dictate coalition partnerships.
Over the course of many years, CLUE built relationships through the BJJA, so more than 50 rabbinical signatures could be secured on a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors demanding a Civilian Oversight Commission for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The Civilian Oversight Commission was established in 2016. The coalition convinced Inspector General Max Huntsman to support subpoena power and to demand transparency for the commission, though that remains a goal. In November 2016, BJJA member Rabbi Heather Miller was appointed to that commission.
Since then, the BJJA has convened around issues of ending gun violence, checking law enforcement and over-policing of communities, and ending the mass jailing of people of color.
2020s
In recent years, CLUE and the BJJA have ramped up efforts to Check the Sheriff, demanding the resignation of Sheriff Villanueva and encouraging the LA County Board of Supervisors to demand accountability through a charter amendment that would allow them to dismiss an elected Sheriff for misconduct.
When COVID-19 first arrived in Southern California, we activated our networks of clergy and lay leaders to provide services and necessities to those who were hit hardest by the pandemic.
While our world remains forever changed by the Coronavirus, CLUE is steadfast in its dedication to fighting for low-wage workers, immigrant workers, and workers of color.


A Larger, Fairer Economy
Migration with Dignity and Compassion after Title 42
Join CLUE in welcoming asylum seekers and migrants at the southern border In the wake of the end of Title 42, CLUE has ramped up efforts to welcome asylum seekers and immigrants at our southern border with dignity and compassion. CLUE is recruiting congregations to welcome asylum seekers, providing food, shelter, and logistical support to24 May 2023
Recent News

Irvine Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance Will Finally Go into Effect!
Irvine Voters Stand by Hotel Housekeepers & Reject Hotel Corporations’ Half-Million Dollar Referendum To Block Law! Over 500 voters officially revoked their signatures after learning the truth about hotel owners’ deceitful signature gatherers! CLUE is so elated to announce that the hotel industry failed to collect the number of valid signatures required to referendize the Housekeeper

Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Nurses & Professionals WIN!!
After more than a year and dozens of community support actions, CLUE is so proud to announce that on Friday, December 2, 2022, 800 of our incredible healers at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital (FVRH) won a life-changing contract that will transform the quality of patient care and working conditions at one of the biggest hospitals in our county!

Join us for Giants of Justice!
Join us for an inspiring breakfast and awards ceremony that celebrates the transformative power of solidarity and raises much needed funds to fuel an organized, connected, interfaith movement for justice!

Join us for Architects of Justice!
Join us for an inspiring evening to benefit CLUE and fuel the organized, connected interfaith movement of justice in Orange County. Early Bird Tickets are available for a limited time only. Plus sponsorships and tribute ads for honorees Kingspan Light & Air Workers, Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, and special guest Rev. James M. Lawson Jr.

Grocery Workers across So Cal continue to demand decent pay and fair scheduling even as they ponder a decision to strike.
A January 2022 Economic Roundtable report highlighted the desperate plights of grocery workers including low-wages and last-minute scheduling that sends them scrambling to find childcare and transportation. The study is a lot to digest, but the bottom line is this: Kroger (Ralphs/Food 4 Less) is extracting profit and exploiting workers to maximize CEO pay and

CLUE b’Shevat Seder
Sunday, January 16, 2022, 5 p.m. A recording of this event is available for a limited time on Facebook. We are humbled by all who joined! Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) and the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County are so delighted to invite you to our inaugural: C.L.U.E. b’Shevat Seder A T”u b’Shevat Seder
Solidarity is Sacred
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice educates, organizes, and mobilizes faith leaders and community members to walk with workers as they stand up for good jobs, safe workplaces, and healthy communities.
We can accompany low-wage workers—mostly immigrants and communities of color—because people like you support an organized, connected interfaith movement for economic justice.
Please join the movement to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.