“When I say, ‘Soy Hermano David de la Iglesia Catolica’ (‘My name is Brother David from the Catholic Church’), to the local Hispanics, I’m always met with such a warm welcome!” says Brother David Henley. He is spending the summer in Canton, Miss., working with the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, based in Chicago, describes itself as “a network of people of faith that call upon our religious values in order to educate, organize and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.”

As part of its summer program, Brother David (who took his First Oath to Glenmary in 2003 and renewed that Oath this past May) was assigned to Canton to work with the Center for Resources and Support for Poultry Workers. The Center works to improve working and living conditions for poultry workers in the area. The region of Mississippi where Brother David is working has 10 poultry plants, each of which employs hundreds of people. About 80 percent of them are Hispanic.

As is true with many people who work as advocates, Brother David’s days are often loosely structured. He makes it a point to regularly visit the trailer park that houses many of the workers. “I love to go and just knock on doors,” Brother David says. “You never know who or what you’re going to run into.”

One day, for example, he met 11 men sitting in the back of pick-up truck. They told Brother David that they were working a construction job but it had been a month since they had been paid.

“According to United States labor laws,” he says, “all people have the same rights, whether they’re documented or not. Most employers don’t know that, and it can play into abuses. Or they’ll think that because Hispanic workers don’t know English, they don’t know their rights.”

And that’s where Brother David comes in.

“We try to be sympathetic (with employers) who are trying to make a living as well, but the low-wage workers really suffer the most,” Brother David says. In early July the Madison County Journal, the weekly newspaper in Canton, published two stories about Brother David and his efforts on behalf of the workers at the Peco Foods plant as well as about the deplorable living conditions of many of the workers. “The fallout from the articles shut some doors to us,” he says, “but that fallout has also made it clear who’s with us.”

The poultry workers in Canton and the surrounding area have unionized but, because Mississippi is a “right to work” state, workers are not required to join. Brother David has worked during the summer to encourage workers to join the union so their rights will be upheld.

“Sometimes the Hispanics are afraid to join a union because union workers in Mexico have been killed, and the unions in their country are known as being corrupt,” he explains.

During his summer with the poultry workers, Brother David has learned that many of them came to the United States with the intention of returning to Mexico after working one or two years, earning enough money to buy some land in Mexico.

“As it turns out, $17,000 a year is not enough to send money home, pay bills here and still have enough to save to buy land,” he says. Therefore, after two or three years, a worker’s family often will join him in Mississippi.

Brother David’s frequent visits to the trailer park have given him tremendous insight into the way Hispanic workers “really live the Gospel message,” he says. “The Gospel says, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’ And when I knock, they offer me a seat, food, drink. It’s amazing how they’ve opened up and shared their stories with me.”

Brother David will return to Glenmary’s formation house in Hartford, Ky., in mid-August where he will continue his studies at Brescia College in Owensboro, working towards a degree in pastoral ministry. And he definitely plans to stay involved with workers and workers’ rights issues.

“I’m called as a Glenmary brother to build relationships with workers and to walk in solidarity in their struggles—and their joys,” he quickly adds. “It’s not all struggle. There’s joy and laughter and love with the people that I meet. Sharing in that is what Glenmary missioners do, and it’s a huge part of what the missions are.”