“Right to Work” laws don’t give anyone the right to a job – they weaken unions by giving workers the “right” to opt out of paying dues when a majority of their co-workers have voted for union representation and are paying their fair share. So it was good news to learn that on June 3, […]
In 2018 I reported on a shocking story in the New York Times. It appeared that a number of pregnant women working in a logistics shipping center had miscarried. One of the women, in pain from heavy lifting, had asked to leave work early – and her supervisor advised her to get an abortion. As […]
Everyone knows that you are supposed to be paid time and a half if you work more than 40 hours a week. That’s been part of American labor law since the US Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 – at least for MOST workers. In a sad exception, the authors of FLSA […]
On May 13, 2021, full-time and part-time teachers and teachers’ aides at St. Rose of Lima School in Freehold, New Jersey (Diocese of Trenton) voted overwhelmingly for Union representation. They are the newest affiliate of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers. With the pandemic on, the teachers and aides were organized on Zoom. Negotiations […]
The Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking (CCOAHT) campaigns against forced labor at sea, and this year is focused on the crew change crisis driven by the pandemic. CCOAHT – together with Stella Maris and the Apostleship of the Sea USA – are urging people of faith to leverage their voices as consumers to […]
The recent accident in the Suez canal drew attention to an industry most people don’t think much about – the shipping industry. Even though some 90% of the world’s products and commodities arrive by sea, and tens of thousands of Americans are employed on board a variety of oceangoing and inland vessels, few of us […]
What a workplace is like when you don’t have a union Why do workers need unions? Ask the faculty at John Carroll University. According to Inside Higher Ed, “John Carroll now says it can fire individual tenured faculty members without cause in cases of ‘budgetary hardship.’” Faculty members object that this obviates tenure altogether; after […]
This month marks the 130th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the foundational text of modern Catholic Social Teaching. After careful study of the industrial era economy and its impact on workers, in light of the Good News, Pope Leo XIII shared his new encyclical letter with the world on May 15, 1891. The document made the […]
Governments exist to serve the common good, not to make a profit. Our federal government can serve the common good by passing legislation, such as increasing the minimum wage, but can also do so by acting as a model employer. That’s what President Joe Biden accomplished the other day with an executive order: henceforth, firms […]
700,000 Hospitality workers throughout the state of California have just won the right to return to work by seniority following massive pandemic layoffs! With Gov. Newsom’s signature on SB 93 (previously AB 3216), hospitality workers can now rest assured that owners won’t be permitted to take advantage of the pandemic by replacing longtime loyal employees […]