Modern Catholic Social Teaching began with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical letter Rerum Novarum reflecting on injustices against workers in the modern industrial economy and, importantly, defending their right to organize in trade unions for collective bargaining. We in the Catholic Labor Network have been deeply alarmed that President Trump has begun his term with significant […]
In November 2024, Fr. Brian Jordan OFM – a New York City labor priest and good friend of the Catholic Labor Network – dedicated a Workers’ Chapel at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Manhattan. Attending the dedication Mass, along with assorted local political leaders and union officers, was New York City AFL-CIO President and […]
Among all workers in US, farmworkers probably suffer the most exploitation and abuse. Often undocumented immigrants, they toil for long hours at poverty wages harvesting the food we eat. In one of the great inequities of the American economy, most of us enjoy access to produce at unsustainably low prices, subsidized by the low cost […]
In early October, OSV News, which provides stories to Catholic Diocesan newspapers around the country, published an important story on labor relations at Catholic institutions. Reporter Kimberly Heatherington checked in on how Catholic schools, universities and hospitals addressed different themes of worker justice, including the right to organize and bargain collectively through a labor union. […]
Maryland Catholic Labor Network activist and AFGE Assistant General Counsel J. Ward Morrow will be offering an online course on Labor in the Movies. Participants will view labor history as portrayed in film, discuss that history and learn how it may be applicable today in the recent union efforts of Starbucks and Amazon employees. The […]
A Labor Day weekend Homily by CLN Spiritual Moderator Fr. Sinclair Oubre Yes, everyone here knows that on Monday, our nation celebrates the day after the twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. We will gather with our family, fire up the grill, and possibly, hand crank some ice cream, and say: “Thank God, the Pharisees challenged […]
During the year periodically we have to devote our newsletter to Catholic institutions engaged in union-busting behavior out of line with Catholic Social Teaching from Rerum Novarum to today. Happily these employers are not the last word. The Catholic Labor Network has identified more than 600 Catholic institutions that instead demonstrate Catholic Social Teaching by […]
courtesy of Aimee Shelide Mayer Starting Sunday, July 21, 2024, through Pentecost of 2025, the People of God in the Catholic Church across the United States are being sent on mission. The third and final year of the National Eucharistic Revival is dedicated to going out: to the streets, homes, neighborhoods, and, indeed, to workplaces […]
Why don’t more follow? As a proud member of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), the union of construction laborers, I am aware that there are still some career paths outside the college track that will earn you a family-supporting wage. One of the best starts with a union-sponsored apprenticeship in one of […]
In December 2021, a group of Starbucks Baristas in Buffalo NY voted to form a union, Starbucks Workers United, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Their example spread like wildfire, with employees at dozens and then hundreds of other locations voting to join the union. Today more than 10,000 workers at 440 stores […]