Labor force.

SO THEIR FAMILY COULD AFFORD TUITION AT THE LOCAL Catholic school, Jerry Butkiewicz and his siblings grew up painting houses with their dad as a side job.

"We painted as soon as we were old enough to scrape dirt from the baseboards," he says.

His parents' sacrifices to send him to Catholic school had a profound impact, and now Butkiewicz dedicates his life to making sure families do not have to work extra jobs to make ends meet. He heads the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, an association of labor unions representing more than 100,000 working families in Southern California. He also serves--alongside corporate CEOs--on the board of directors of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

"I'm going to do everything I can to get them to share their wealth with their employees," he says of his cordial relationship with business leaders. "That's my job. That's the calling I got."

That calling comes from the gospel and the knowledge that working families are more likely to stay together if they earn a living wage. For him, faith, family values, and the rights of workers are intricately tied together. When headlines talk about jobs going overseas, Butkiewicz knows that means stress on families, sometimes even to the point of breaking. He says the faith community needs to support fair wages and labor practices.

"The family is going to suffer," he says. "Churches have to unite with organized labor and continue to fight for these jobs so that families aren't busted up over economic issues."

The Catholic Church and labor unions have a common goal, according to Butkiewicz, and that is defending the dignity of the human person. "At church we often have a second collection for the poor or the homeless," Butkiewicz says. "Well, those are the same people the union is trying to help. We want to get them a job with a salary they can live on, health insurance, and dignity on the job."

In 2002, standing in at the bargaining table in place of union members, Butkiewicz, a rabbi, a Protestant minister, a lay Catholic social minister, and a prominent local businessman negotiated the end of a 10-year dispute between pressroom workers and the management of the San Diego Union-Tribune. After 10 years without a pay increase, Butkiewicz helped the workers secure a 35-hour workweek, merit raises, life insurance, and a two-thirds drop in health insurance premiums.

"Jerry is the one you bring in when you're ready to resolve the issue," says Rabbi Laurie Coskey, who heads a group of faith leaders advocating for low-wage workers and who partnered with Butkiewicz on the Union-Tribune negotiations.

San Diego--a red city in a blue state--has been Butkiewicz's home for 25 years. Born in Chicago, at the age of 6 he moved to Phoenix, where he attended Catholic schools, worked for the post office, and became involved in the local union.

He says he probably would not have landed his first job in San Diego if he had not told the postmaster, a fellow Catholic, in the interview that he intended to send his children to the local Catholic elementary school.

"I think that's why he hired me," Butkiewicz says. "I was a huge union activist, and no postmaster would want a union leader to work in his post office." But once his foot was in the door, Butkiewicz worked his way up through the post office and the union, serving for several years as the union's United Way liaison.

Despite his high position, the plainspoken postman-turned-labor-leader still does not have a computer in his office. "I don't like them," he says. But he does have one at home so he can play fantasy baseball online.

THAT A STRONG FAMILY LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN material goods is not just a nice saying for the Butkiewicz family. That principle recently prompted a big change in their lives, when they sold their 5-acre property in Temecula, 60 miles north of San Diego, and moved to a much smaller home just minutes from Butkiewicz's office, even though it meant that his wife, Julia, a hairstylist, lost her clientele.

"We talked about the material things we'd be giving up" and decided that family life was more important, he says.

"It's a give and take. What do you want out of life?"

JERRY BUTKIEWICZ

CEO, SAN DIEGO-IMPERIAL COUNTIES LABOR COUNCIL

PARISH: St. Therese, San Diego

MY FAVORITE SAINT: St. Joseph

A WORD TO LIVE BY: Loyalty

IF I HAD ONE DAY TO DO WHATEVER I WANTED, I WOULD: Go and see what heaven is like.

IN MY FREE TIME: I coach youth softball and play baseball.

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY: Labor Day, of course!

VINCENT GRAGNANI, a freelance writer on Staten Island, New York.