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CLN project targets wage theft in construction

The construction industry has a problem, and the problem is wage theft. At this year’s Catholic Labor Network annual meeting – held at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in January — CLN field organizer Ernesto Galeas reported on seven months of visiting construction sites in Washington DC and Maryland, and his findings were grim. Galeas, […]

The Catholic Labor Network Annual Meeting: Video Available!

The Catholic Labor Network annual meeting, held Saturday January 25 in conjunction with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, featured some great panelists and discussions. And this year, for the first time, we can share some of them with you! On our YouTube channel, you can check out the addresses […]

Church in Virginia pushes for minimum wage increase

Clergy and activists from Arlington, Richmond join Virginia workers on lobby day The federal minimum wage remains mired at $7.25 per hour – less than $15,000 per year for a full-time worker. That’s not a living wage in any part of the country, and certainly not in fast-growing Virginia. That’s why workers are calling on […]

DC union workers share job, life experiences at Georgetown event

Jesus Salazar and Tenae Stover talk about job, union activities; John Carr offers CST commentary Labor unions are foundational institutions in modern Catholic Social Teaching on the economy and society, and in his 2009 letter Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI told us that Catholic teaching regarding unions must be honored today “even more than […]

Why Unions? DC Area Workers Speak, Catholics Respond

Why Unions? Area Workers Speak Out Workers and the Church in the Washington DC Area   Clayton Sinyai, Catholic Labor Network Tenae Stover, LSG Sky Chefs Cook at National Airport and UNITE HERE Local 23 Bargaining Committee Member Jesus Salazar, EMI Custodial Services and SEIU Local 32BJ Contract Action Team John Carr, Georgetown Initiative on […]

Catholic Charities Delegation Tours DC Sheet Metal Workers’ Training Center

The construction sector was the original “gig economy” where every job was temporary, lasting the duration of a building project. But construction unions figured out more than a century ago how turn these temporary jobs into family-supporting careers. Unions and contractors agreed to pool resources to train and maintain a skilled workforce, dispatched on request […]

In trade negotiations, American unions stand up for Mexican workers

Both the Church and the US labor movement have expressed concern that today’s global economy and trade relationships allow the owners of capital to escape obligations to workers and the poor. So the Catholic Labor Network is pleased to learn that — under pressure from the AFL-CIO — the renegotiation of NAFTA has yielded new […]

Catholic Labor Network recognized as Association of the Faithful

Fr. Sinclair Oubre, JCL The Archdiocese of Washington has recognized the Catholic Labor Network as an Association of the Faithful under Church law. So, what does that mean? The Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983, was the product of the document of Vatican II. The theology contained in the concilliar documents like the Lumen […]

Marco Rubio Discovers Catholic Social Teaching

Senator Marco Rubio made quite an impression this month with a speech at Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business – one that questioned the wisdom of the market and invoked Catholic Social Teaching as a corrective. “On the political right, where I come from,” he explained, “we’ve become defenders of the right of […]