The Working Catholic: Broken Ladders

/in /by

— by Bill Droel

Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, New Mexico, grew up in a small Texas town. There were six Mexican-American families on his block and others nearby. One large family “was unique,” writes Ramirez, a member of the Basilian Fathers, in Power from the Margins: the Emergence of the Latino in the Church and in Society (Orbis Books, 2016). How was this family unique? “They gave high priority to school.”

All parents want the best education for their children. But all families are simultaneously nurtured by and restrained by their environment. An environment that has responsive institutions and thick supportive networks makes it easier for a family to be successful, whole and holy. By contrast, an environment with unaccountable institutions in a relational desert requires extraordinary effort to gain success, wholeness and holiness. There has been deterioration in the “family environments” for Puerto Ricans, Dominican-Americans and Mexican-Americans over the past 40-years, says Ramirez. A glaring symptom of this deterioration is a high dropout rate.
Latinos have the highest high school dropout rate; double the black rate. As Ramirez implies, this rate has grown by about 50% during his 40-year timeline. Of those in college, the majority do not attain a bachelor’s degree within six years of enrolling. Of those Latinos who begin at a community college over 75% do not earn a bachelor’s degree even within eight years. These attrition rates come at a time when a degree is the primary economic ladder.

Ramirez profiles a handful of small though suggestive experiments designed to improve the education completion rate for Latinos. Cristo Rey High School Network is sponsored by the Jesuits. There are about 30 of these schools with perhaps 300 students in each. Each student is matched with an employer—someone identified through Jesuit contacts among the order’s alumni and friends. The student is employed at least five days per month at the company or firm. Often a mentor relationship emerges through the employment. There is, as befitting any Jesuit school, rigorous classroom study and homework.
Nativity Miguel Network drew inspiration from the Jesuit experiment. It gained momentum from the De LaSalle Christian Brothers. It has 64 middle schools that require extended hours in the classroom during the week. These schools also have a longer academic schedule. The graduates are monitored/mentored into high school.
Ramirez also mentions the Alliance for Catholic Education at University of Notre Dame. As part of their degree program, some Notre Dame students teach in Catholic schools. A typical placement is in a Latino neighborhood for two years. In addition to their competence, the college students bring the social capital of their friends to the project—not only during the two years, but ideally for the near future.

The notion of social capital is critical. One student alone will not likely move up the ladder. It is only by joining lots of otherwise disparate pieces that Latinos will succeed. Cristo Rey and other promising programs know the importance of getting the entire family into the school picture. After that, success parallels the interest taken by small businesses, community organizations, parishes and more.
Social capital is not automatically accumulated; it cannot be assumed. Deliberate face-to-face encounter is necessary. Thus any intervention or program on behalf of students cannot be only about tutoring for information content. It is about the fourth R: reading, [w]riting, [a]rithmetic and relationships.
Ramirez puts the secret in faith language: Effective school programs must allow people to personally and collectively interpret their own story as “a real occasion of grace” and understand it as a contribution to “the entire church,” the whole people of God.

Footnote: The terms Hispanic and Latino are, in my opinion, political contrivances meant to put several distinct cultures into a single voting block or a concise demographic. I prefer to use a hyphenated-American style. However, in keeping with Ramirez this article uses Latino.

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a newsletter about faith and work.

Now it can be told: Seattle Adjuncts say union yes

/1 Comment/in , /by

After two years, we have learned that Seattle university adjuncts voted 73-63 to join SEIU 925. Why the delay? The University was unwilling to bargain collectively with its contingent faculty voluntarily, and when the adjuncts turned to the labor board for help, the administration fought the board by invoking freedom of religion. The university, like Duquesne, St. Xavier and a handful of others, is trying to suggest it’s in the same situation as Catholic employers told to provide contraception under the Affordable Care Act – though unlike those employers, the colleges are not being asked to do anything in conflict with their faith.

The NLRB did modify its initial determination in deference to religious freedom issues. At both St. Xavier University and Seattle the NLRB announced that religion and/or theology instructors are not subject to the National Labor Relations Act on First Amendment grounds. It is indeed essential to preserve our freedom of religion, and to a layman this certainly sounds like a reasonable application of the law.  Still, I hope that these and other schools will choose to bargain with religion and theology faculty who want a union – not because of legal sanctions, but just to lead by example and conform with Catholic social teaching.

Major Settlements in Catholic Healthcare

/in , /by

Recent weeks have seen the end of two long-simmering contract disputes in the Catholic hospitals, one on each coast. After a year of tense negotiations, Buffalo’s Catholic Health system reached an agreement with workers at three area hospitals. The two sides stated that the agreement represented a sound basis to deliver quality care and retain good employees, and anticipated more positive labor relations going forward. “We’re proud to have come to an agreement that will promote patient care, offers the wages to retain staff and maintains important healthcare benefits,” said Dennis Trainor, Vice President of Communications Workers of America District 1. “I want to thank the bargaining teams for their extraordinary efforts and commitment to work through the complex issues we face in healthcare and find a positive way forward,” said Joe McDonald, President & CEO of Catholic Health. “We are committed to forging a new relationship with the union, built on mutual goals that reward and recognize our dedicated associates.”

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, in July Providence Health and Services and St. Joseph Health merged to form a huge health care system stretching from Southern California to Alaska: Providence St. Joseph. Providence has long been known for good labor relations and fair treatment of workers; St Joseph, not so much. Which management style will characterize the new system? A positive sign: within weeks of the merger, Providence St. Joseph and the California Nurses Association settled a long-running contract dispute that had embroiled four former St. Joseph hospitals.

Unfortunately, it seems the spirit of teamwork hasn’t reached St. Jude hospital in Fullerton. When nurses there sought to form a union, the hospital hired a “union avoidance” consultant and used heavy-handed tactics to fight the organizing campaign. They are facing unfair labor practice charges before the NLRB for surveillance and intimidation of union supporters.

The Working Catholic: 501-C-3

/in /by

According to an IRS rule, churches (and other non-profits) “are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in or intervening in any political campaign.” The current Republican Party platform, reports Kevin Baker (N.Y. Times, 8/28/16), wants the rule overturned. The platform plank is a response to some evangelical organizations that desire more direct electoral influence. Catholic institutions wisely know that the current “no politicking” rule is better politically and better theologically.

The current tax-exemption rule is better politically because it saves face for Catholic institutions. They simply cannot deliver the vote. Catholic voters no longer take their cues from Church employees. In fact, when a pastor or bishop wades too deeply into a partisan area, his parishioners drift to the other side.
Likewise, a change in the tax-exemption rule would be bad for Catholic institutions because neither electoral party clearly reflects the moral positions of Catholicism.

A change in the no-politicking rule is also bad theology, or to use jargon, bad ecclesiology.

If a Catholic is prompted to reflect on models of the church, she or he might reply: “My parish uses a collaborative model” or “Our pastor has an authoritarian model.” There is, however, a less parochial way to think about models of the church. That is, to think about how the church is situated within society and culture.
Back in the Middle Ages the church was nearly synonymous with society. Its bishops were the primary influence agents and—for better or worse—acted directly in the palaces and courts of the elites.
With modernity Catholicism (now differentiated from Protestantism) experimented with different models in different locales. For example, in what could be called the lay auxiliary model, Catholicism developed parallel organizations (unions, professional guilds, Christian Democratic parties) in order to offset some secular trends and, after 1848 specifically, to combat atheistic communism. This model was more popular in Europe than in the U.S.
Eventually at Vatican II (1962-1965), Catholicism adopted the cultural-pastoral model. Church institutions in this model are fully separate from civil and secular support. Not because Catholicism is opposed to modernity, but because it has better credibility if its institutions are apolitical. This model is premised on lay Christians taking full, independent responsibility for diminishing injustice in workplaces, bringing harmony to family and neighborhood life, promoting the common good in civic associations and enhancing dignity in culture. Lay people act not as representatives of their bishop, but as baptized Christians, eager to cooperate with God’s on-going creation and redemption.

It is true that 50 years after Vatican II a bishop here and there speaks too specifically about partisan topics. Why? Perhaps because he doesn’t understand or accept Vatican II? Or maybe because he is bored with his proper duty? A bishop is to constantly and sometimes loudly teach Catholic doctrine, including its planks on the right to life, the right of workers to make independent decisions about labor unions, about the integrity of the family, about hospitality to strangers, about dignity regardless of race or sexual orientation, about the social sin of poverty and more. It is a theological and political mistake, however, when a bishop in his ecclesial role expresses an opinion about a zoning matter, about increasing or lowering government farm subsidies, about what he thinks is the best legislative approach for reducing the number of abortions, about allocation of police personnel in various city districts and more. In recent years a few bishops have even tipped their miter toward the Republican presidential candidate. (They cannot do so in the 2016 race because the Republican candidate is blatantly anti-immigrant among other objections.)
When told he is getting a tad too specific and thereby violating Vatican II’s cultural-pastoral model, a bishop says in effect: “Well, the laity are not properly formed in the faith. They even support some anti-Catholic public policies. I therefore have to set the record straight.” This is a circular argument. The more Church employees in their role as employees talk about partisan positions, the less interested are the laity in the teachings of our faith.

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a newsletter about faith and work.

How are you celebrating Labor Day in your parish?

/1 Comment/in /by
Archbishop Wenski (courtesy Piotr Drabik)

Archbishop Thomas Wenski (courtesy Piotr Drabik)

Every year around this time, the USCCB issues a letter reflecting on labor and work, looking at current challenges through the eye of faith. This year, Archbishop Wenski of Miami (chair of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development) reflects on the global economic forces burdening the worker and the family. The Archbishop calls for renewed solidarity. “Simply put, we must advocate for jobs and wages that truly provide a dignified life for individuals and their families, and for working conditions that are safe and allow for a full flourishing of life outside of the workplace.”

Looking for resources to celebrate Labor Day at your Parish? The Bishops have prepared a great 1 page primer summarizing Catholic Social Teaching on labor and work – a great bulletin insert for the big weekend! They also offer a pastoral aid for priests planning sermons and social ministry leaders organizing events, and a list of Quotes From Pope Francis on Labor and Work. Don’t let the day pass by unmarked: share these USCCB resources with your Pastor today!

Report: At Least 500 Catholic Institutions Employ Union Labor

/1 Comment/in /by

union-yesWhen the US Catholic Bishops invoke the rich history of Catholic social teaching to defend the rights of labor, all of the faithful can learn from their words. When Catholic hospitals, schools and universities respect workers’ right to organize, the faithful can learn from their actions.

Today the Catholic Labor Network is pleased to release its 2016 Gaudium et Spes Labor Report, featuring a list of approximately 500 Catholic institutions employing union labor.

Did you know, for instance, that more than 350 Catholic elementary, middle and high schools in the United States have union contracts with their teachers? Read more

The Working Catholic: Stealing Donuts by Bill Droel

/in /by

“It is not a sin to steal food if you are starving.” That is what the Mercy Sisters at my grammar school told us some 50 years ago. It’s funny what one remembers. Of course, this lesson was reinforced for me every time I rode my bike over to a most delicious donut shop in the area.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) issued their Manifesto of the Communist Party early in 1848. After distinguishing private property from common use of property, they wrote: “The theory of the Communist Party may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
During Advent of that the same year, Bishop and Baron Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler (1811-1877) of Germany preached six Social Sermons on the Mount. “The false doctrine that property confers strict rights is a perpetual sin against nature,” von Ketteler said. Using St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) as his guide, von Ketteler said that only God has “full and genuine property rights.” Thus when using property, people have “the duty to bow to the God-given order of things.” Catholicism indeed “protects property” but it must be destined toward “the sake of the general welfare.”
The conflation of property use with an exclusive claim on it, von Ketteler said, is an error of capitalism—or of what we today call neo-conservative capitalism (or neo-liberal capitalism in Europe and South America). He also astutely pointed out, that “the false doctrine of communism” makes the same mistake about property.

Just as Marx, Engels and others in the mid-1800s were constructing a communist response to the industrial economy, so too von Ketteler and several lay leaders developed a Catholic theological and action response to what they called the social question. In May 1891 (125 years ago) Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903), drawing upon von Ketteler, issued his encyclical On the Conditions of Labor. It is considered the first in a line of papal documents about modern society and the economy that continues with Pope Francis. Catholic social doctrine and action is of course more sophisticated than the adage: It is no sin to steal a donut when starving. But the principle behind the adage, the principle of the universal destination of goods, underpins all of Catholic social thought. In 1979 while in Puebla, Mexico Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) put it this way: “There is a social mortgage on all private property.”
The 1848 Social Sermons on the Mount and the 1891 On the Conditions of Labor encyclical name other principles that, if taken seriously and applied with creativity, would make for a society and economy more humane than those tried under the communist regimes and certainly better than what neo-conservative capitalism now offers. Some of those principles will be discussed in a future blog.

To this day my favorites remain the plain donut, sometimes called old fashioned, and the French cruller donut.

Droel edits a print newsletter on faith and work. Get it for free by writing him c/o NCL, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629

The Working Catholic: Jealous Crabs

/in /by

by Bill Droel

All ethnic groups experience a tension between the old world and the new world. First generation immigrant parents, for example, are distressed when their children prefer social activities among their schoolmates over family gatherings. The children are angry because these obligatory family events occur every weekend. Daughters say their parents are over-protective; parents say their daughters have succumbed to the worst of U.S. culture.

Sam Quinones profiles Chicago restaurateur Carlos Ascencion Salinas in Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream (University of New Mexico Press, 2007). Salinas arrived here nearly 40 years ago. He took a job in one of the restaurants of a regional pancake chain. He saved some of his earnings and he studied his workplace. Salinas eventually opened his own taqueria, and then a few more. Salinas also assisted many other Mexican-Americans to start their own business. Today, Chicago features hundreds of these family-operated taquerias. There is one, for example, out the back door and then just across the alley from my home and then a dozen more within another four blocks.

Along the way Salinas and others had to sort out what was healthy in his old world culture and what was of no use in the U.S. In Quinones’ excellent book, Salinas repeats a version of the oft-told crab story. The fisherman, it seems, had no lid on his bait bucket. Another angler comes by: “Aren’t you afraid the bait will escape?” “No,” replies the first. “These are Mexican crabs. Whenever one gets too high in the bucket, the others drag it down.” (This story, by the way, has been told about Italian crabs, Pilipino crabs and even Catholic crabs.)
To be a success in business, explains Salinas, it wasn’t enough to learn about food distributors or about wage and hour regulations. He had to learn the soft arts; how to work in a pluralistic environment. In Mexico there is envidia, a jealousy embedded in the culture. There is an expectation that one gains status by trash-talking anyone who is further ahead. Envidia can even include sabotage. Salinas knew that envious behavior had to give way to cooperation for success in the U.S.
Quinones tells us that Salinas preached teamwork “without envy and backbiting.” He shared his knowledge and made loans to others interested in starting a business. The loans “weren’t that important,” says Salinas. It was “recognizing the strength of unity, this support, backing each other up, this confidence we all need… We have to break the pattern of those famous crabs.”

Not everything from the old world should be forsaken upon arrival in the U.S. Research shows that parochialism actually aids assimilation. A strong family network gives children a nourishing harbor in our individualistic, often rootless culture. The seemingly old world ethnic family has resources more valuable than those in a superficial culture that is fixated on the vacuous Kardashians and the talent-deficient Miley Cyrus.
Every ethnic family struggles with this. What belongs to private life but is not useful in conducting public life? What is healthy in the home-based culture and what is dysfunctional there? Sorting through these matters is difficult. It helps to have a business leader like Salinas, perhaps a considerate foreman, maybe an Anglo pastor in one’s Mexican-American parish (or in a Polish-American parish), maybe an involved teacher. Thousands upon thousands of immigrants to our country have made a way from poverty to success by using one culture to create the next.

Droel edits a free newsletter about faith and work: NCL, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629

Catholic Employer Report QUIZ!

/5 Comments/in /by

Very soon – in time for Labor Day – the Catholic Labor Network will release its 2016 “Gaudium et Spes” Labor Report. The report, compiled from public information and reports by our members and friends,  will list all the Catholic hospitals, nursing homes, schools, colleges, universities, and other institutional employers who bargain with unions representing their employees (at least all of those we have identified).

QUIZ QUESTION: About how many Catholic hospitals, schools, colleges and other employers bargain with unions representing their employees? A) 25; B) 50; C) 100; D) 500; E) 1,000

Bonus Question: Which Diocese or Archdiocese has the largest number of these? Read more

Catholic Hospital Negotiations on Opposite Coasts Turn in Opposite Directions

/in /by

Contract Ratified in Spokane, Strike Brewing in Buffalo

Catholic Health SalariesAt Providence Health, a Catholic Hospital system embracing 34 hospitals in the Northwestern United States, many nurses and other health care employees have union representation. Even when both labor and management exhibit mutual respect, bargaining a contract is not always easy – but it’s often edifying and can go a long way toward helping each side understand the needs and priorities of the other, paving the way for a compromise reflecting the common good. After many months at the bargaining table, where staffing levels were a major sticking point, members of the Washington State Nurses Association ratified a contract August 3 covering nurses at Spokane’s Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. The nurses secured staffing commitments in some priority areas of the hospital; a management spokeswoman said that the contract “benefits both parties and meets all our needs.”

In Western New York a different story is unfolding. Nurses and other hospital employees at Buffalo’s Mercy Hospital argue that the facility is “understaffed and underpaid” and have voted to authorize a strike. While hospital administrators say they have made offers to improve staffing and wages, CWA Local 1133, representing the employees, argues that these offers are inadequate. The union has worked with community groups to publicize their views with white papers and informational pickets.