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Baltimore Catholic social ministry leaders call on mayor to sign “right to recall” bills

Bills would require hotels reopening after pandemic to rehire furloughed employees More than 15,000 Baltimore workers employed in area hotels, casinos, restaurants and sports arenas have been laid off, through no fault of their own, due to the pandemic. After huddling with furloughed workers and union representatives on October 6, representatives from 9 Baltimore City […]

Catholic Labor Network supports launch of 3rd MC3 cohort in Nashville

The Central Labor Council of Nashville & Middle Tennessee, in partnership with the Nashville Area Building Trades, is launching its third Apprenticeship Readiness Program in the construction trades November 9-20, 2020.  This free, 120-hour training program follows NABTU’s national MC3 (multi-craft core curriculum) and has been adapted to the local vernacular of Nashville to be […]

Is the Church losing touch with working-class Catholics?

America magazine probes disturbing data In a recent, wide-ranging article examining data on Church attendance, America magazine editor Kevin Clarke asked: Is the Church losing its working-class flock? There’s great reason to be concerned. Despite a popular media narrative about secular elites looking down on blue-collar believers, survey data suggests that while mass attendance has […]

CLN Helps Construction Workers Fight Wage Theft

Major DC General Contractor Subs Out Work to Contractors Breaking Minimum Wage, Overtime Laws; Workers Take Legal Action Two immigrant construction workers in Washington DC have filed a class action lawsuit against CBG, one of Washington DC’s largest general contractors, for wage theft, and others are stepping up to join them. Workers employed by multiple […]

Pope Francis Releases Letter “On Fraternity and Social Friendship”

Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti Indicates Limits of Free Market, Condemns Unjust Distribution of Wealth For more than a century, popes have issued Encyclical Letters explaining the social teaching of the Church. Pope Leo XIII began the tradition with Rerum Novarum (1891), which condemned the unjust distribution of wealth created in the early industrial revolution, defending […]

Will hotels use pandemic to bring in replacement workers?

Dozens of California Jesuits urge Governor Newsom to sign “Right to Recall” Legislation America’s millions of hotel clerks, housekeepers, cooks and waiters have been hit harder than most by the pandemic. The vast majority have confronted pandemic layoffs, and the supplemental unemployment benefits that kept them afloat expired in July. Now they face a new […]

Fr. Jack O’Malley, legendary labor priest, dies at 83

Pittsburgh’s Father Jack O’Malley, one of the great labor priests and a founder of the Catholic Labor Network, has passed away. Please remember him and his family in your prayers. True to form, in his final days he was trying to organize the nurses at his hospital! The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted: The Rev. John “Jack” […]

Thoughts on the Postal Crisis from a Letter Carrier

As a former Letter Carrier for the US Postal Service, I have been paying particular attention to recent events in the news – especially the shocking decision by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to slow down mail delivery in order to save the postal service money. As a carrier, I would arrive at the post office […]