It’s a sad reality that too often Catholic institutions deny their employees their just rights, and do so with impunity because our cherished First Amendment freedoms prevent the federal government from sanctioning them. We hear about this most often when Catholic schoolteachers or adjunct faculty seek to organize in unions. Employees of Catholic hospitals enjoy […]
For decades, St John’s University in New York City stood as an almost unique example of a private sector university whose tenured faculty enjoyed collective bargaining rights. Today it appears that this shining example of labor relations on the model of Catholic Social Teaching is in danger, and the consequences could threaten the union rights […]
On December 11, a bipartisan majority of House members voted to approve the Protect America’s Workforce Act, a bill that would restore the union rights of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees. The vote was 231-195, with 20 Republicans joining all the House Democrats to pass the legislation. The bill was necessary because in […]
In an election held December 9th and 10th, registered nurses at St. Joseph Health in Texas’s Brazos Valley voted to join National Nurses United. The union reports that it will now represent “some 750 registered nurses who are part of St. Joseph Health Regional, with hospitals in Bryan and College Station, and three critical access […]
Low wages. Grievous working conditions. Few workers in the United States face greater exploitation than migrant farm workers. In the 1970s, Cesar Chavez, motivated by his deep Catholic faith and his commitment to trade unionism, led the United Farm Workers in multiple organizing campaigns in California supported by consumer boycotts. Many Catholic social justice activists […]
On Tuesday December 9, 2025, hundreds of Loyola Marymount University non-tenured faculty and their supporters rallied to demand that the university resume collective bargaining with their chosen union, SEIU Local 721. For more than a century, Catholic Social Teaching has expressly held that workers have the right to organize in unions and bargain collectively. That’s […]
The USCCB Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth coordinated a consultation for a new national pastoral document on the laity. The Catholic Labor Network hosted three synodal listening sessions in October, 2025. This is a summary of what CLN submitted to the USCCB. Across all consultations, participants discerned a common movement of the […]
Faithful Catholics and allies stand with the non-tenure track faculty at Loyola Marymount University. On September 12, 2025, LMU’s Board of Trustees announced that it would no longer recognize the faculty union representing its non-tenure track professors—invoking a “religious exemption” to end collective bargaining. This decision directly contradicts Catholic Social Doctrine, which affirms that the […]
This week, Labor Leaders from Chicago, plus a few others from around the country, will journey to Rome as Pilgrims. 2025 is a Jubilee Year and the theme chosen by Pope Francis was “Pilgrims of Hope.” At a time when working people in the United States are under attack like never before from their own […]
The Catholic Labor Network was deeply disappointed to learn that the Loyola Marymount University announced it was ending bargaining with the union chosen by its non-tenure track faculty. Catholic Social Teaching is clear: all workers, including and especially those employed by Catholic institutions, have the right to organize unions for collective bargaining. The University should […]