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CLN, faith leader delegation meet with RJR tobacco about farm labor practices

The work of harvesting tobacco is difficult and dangerous, and is largely performed by immigrant “guest” workers. They have turned to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) to seek improvement in their conditions, but growers in North Carolina and surrounding states have largely thwarted their organizing efforts to date. That’s why a faith leader delegation […]

A Path for Dreamers in the Building Trades

Courtesy of Aimee Shelide Mayer Covid disrupted all of our lives, but it has not stopped the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, the area Building Trades Unions, and the Catholic Labor Network from continuing to offer the two-week apprenticeship readiness program known locally as Music City Construction Careers (MC3).  Since the onset […]

Kingspan workers, clergy remember Grenfell Tower fire victims

A guest contribution from CLN Member John Murphy This morning, before heading into work, Kingspan workers held a candlelight vigil in solidarity with thousands marching silently in London today on the 4 1/2 year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower Fire. At 4:30am, in the rain, we huddled under tents, holding tealight candles- the volunteer organizing […]

CSPL and CLN Bring Catholic Workers’ Rights Training to UNITE HERE Members

Follows workshops at St. Benedict the African, St. Oscar Romero In 2021, the Catholic Labor Network partnered with Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) to conduct a series of worker’s rights workshops rooted in Catholic doctrine – starting in Catholic parishes and culminating in a program for members of UNITE HERE Local 1 in […]

Dorothy Day Sainthood Sending Mass Dec. 8

guest contribution from Jeffry Korgen of the Dorothy Day Guild Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was a friend to workers throughout the 20th Century. Her promotion of worker justice extended from the IWW back in the early 20th Century, to her efforts, after her conversion to Catholicism, to promote Church support of […]

150 Ohio Faith Leaders Tell Wendy’s: Respect Farmworkers!

Of all America’s workers, farmworkers are among the most poorly treated. That’s why the Catholic Labor Network, the Diocese of Columbus and Ohio Faith in Public Life organized a letter from faith leaders across the Buckeye state urging Wendy’s to clean up its supply chain by joining the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food […]

Santa Ana workers exposed to toxic environment, seek union

It’s not always wages and benefits that drive workers to organize. In the Kingspan factory in Santa Ana, California workers are seeking to form a union and bargain collectively because the company was taking risks with their health. Kingspan, an Irish multinational, produces materials for green building construction and says on its website that “buildings […]

Labor Unions and Google (Part I)

Google’s old corporate slogan was “Don’t be evil.” And in recent conversations with two Catholic Labor Network members – Stephen McMurty of the Alphabet Workers Union and Chuck Hendricks of UNITE HERE – who have firsthand knowledge, I’ve been pleased to learn that Google’s labor relations practices seem more enlightened than some other companies I’ve […]