This Labor Day weekend, workers are counting on the power of prayer.

As the holiday approaches, more than 1,000 religious congregations will participate in a project that binds organized labor with churches, synagogues and mosques around the country.

Organizers say that in Chicago alone, more than 100 churches will take part in Labor in the Pulpits, a joint project of Chicago-based Interfaith Worker Justice and the AFL-CIO. Among other things, it brings union members into congregations as guest speakers, and it enlists clergy to talk about organized labor.

"The program is about really linking the moral imperative to justice," says Renaye Manley, the program's coordinator at Interfaith Worker Justice. "The religious leaders are writing the materials and linking it to the justice of their faith traditions."

For example, materials for the program available on the AFL-CIO's Web site include this litany from the Quran: "And O my people! Give just measure and weight, nor withhold from the people the things that are their due."

The materials also quote Muhammad as saying, "Give the employee his wages before his sweat has had time to dry."