Two weeks before the COVID-19 crisis, 25,000 workers at Giant and Safeway grocery stores in the Greater Washington DC area overcame a push by the companies to end their pension plans and curtail health benefits. The members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) endured months of difficult negotiations and settled excellent contracts […]
Up until now, St. Leo’s University in central Florida bore witness to an important element of Catholic Social Teaching – the right of workers to organize – by bargaining with a union representing its faculty. No more. In a surprise move, the Board of Trustees recently decided to withdraw recognition from the faculty union, citing […]
In a big win for just wages, 61% of Florida voters supported raising the state’s minimum wage (gradually) to $15 per hour. Catholic Social Teaching holds that every worker deserves a living wage, and most everyone agrees that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour – less than $15,000 per year for a full-time […]
Despite what you might hear from business lobbyists about alleged “overregulation,” insiders understand that OSHA seldom issues a regulation unless pushed by worker advocates. Although there are thousands of toxic chemicals in use in industry, regulations only cover a few dozen – usually in response to lobbying or lawsuits by labor unions and public health […]
Some employers replacing furloughed workers with temps The covid-19 pandemic required many hotels, restaurants, theaters and sports venues to close their doors, at least temporarily. Many were forced to furlough longtime employees. As they gradually reopen, will they call these loyal workers back to service – or take advantage of today’s depressed labor market to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]