Interfaith Service Looks Seriously at Labor Day : Workers: A liberal crowd of Valley residents gather to consider the challenges employees are confronting today.

For most people, Labor Day conjures up images of lying back at the beach, shopping, or relaxing with friends at a barbecue. But about 200 Valley residents spent Labor Day--or the evening at least--in a way that the architects of the holiday would have approved of: Thinking about the challenges facing the modern-day worker.

Disappearing jobs. Shrinking buying power. Calls to lengthen the eight-hour workday.

These were some of the issues pondered by the union, church and synagogue members who gathered for an interfaith Labor Day service sponsored by the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council and the Valley Labor Political Education Council. The seventh annual service and barbecue was at the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society in North Hills.

In the shade of the church’s onion-shaped dome--the society is informally known as “The Onion”--labor activists and congregants mingled over hot dogs and chips at picnic tables decorated with red, white and blue balloons.

It was clearly a liberal crowd. Such phrases as “social justice” could often be heard, to the point that the participants themselves joked about it.

“I’m here eating my annual hot dog,” said Susan Forthman, a marriage therapist.

A table mate, Jo Seidita, kiddingly observed “There’s no tofu here.”

Turning serious, Seidita said she attended Monday night’s event to show her support for the labor movement.

“I have vivid memories of the difference that unions have made in our lives,” said Seidita, who said she was in her late 60s. “I’m very concerned with the demise of the labor movement and the huge effect that that’s going to have on our children.”

Other attendees said they came to draw inspiration from the speakers, who included state Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), chairwoman of the Senate’s Industrial Relations Committee; Joe Hicks, former executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, and other religious leaders.

“We’re celebrating today the work of millions of people who have provided for our economy,” Solis said in an interview before her speech. The senator said she wanted her speech to draw attention to the plight of the more than 70 Thai sweatshop workers who were rescued from slave-like working conditions in El Monte last month.

Noting that the incident had attracted international attention, Solis said, “We have a duty to reform and clean this up.”

John A. Perez, chairman of the Labor Political Education Council, said Hicks planned to talk about the importance of bringing the various ethnic and religious communities together.