Sadly, our new President has begun his term with a series of executive orders and memoranda targeting immigrants and refugees. Happily, the Church and organized labor are swiftly speaking out in defense of these vulnerable workers and families. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has issued a statement on the executive actions, which begins: President Donald Trump […]
Last month in this space I wrote about anti-union “right-to-work” legislation circulating in three states — Kentucky, Missouri and New Hampshire. As the legislation hit the floor in Kentucky, Bishop John Stowe of Lexington issued a remarkable appeal to state legislators defending Catholic social teaching on labor and worker justice, and indicating how that teaching […]
January witnessed an impressive gathering at the Catholic University of America, where labor and Church leaders came together for a dialogue on the Dignity of Work and the dangers of an “erroneous autonomy” – the libertarian, free-market vision that shatters solidarity and imagines “looking out for number one” as the summum bonum. San Diego Bishop […]
In recent years, American universities have cut instructional costs by shifting an ever-growing share of teaching duties from costly tenured faculty to part-time adjunct instructors and graduate students with low salaries and few (if any) employment benefits. In response, adjunct faculty at several universities, including Catholic ones, have formed unions. In January 2016 adjuncts at […]
Francis: As employer, Vatican “must follow the guidelines of the Social Doctrine of the Church” Pope Francis would have a difficult time in his ministry without the labors of an estimated 3,000 lay Vatican employees. The Holy Father invited these workers and their families to the Paul VI audience hall in late December to […]
Don’t miss this post on the AFL-CIO blog, featuring an interview with Catholic Labor Network member Fr. Anthony Shonis. Shonis is a longtime union activist who urges union members, “If you belong to a church, a synagogue or a mosque, you should tell the pastor, priest or imam that you are a union member and […]
Courtesy of Meg Olson, Organizer at NETWORK, a Catholic Social Justice Lobby The National Employment Law Project (NELP) held its annual Raise the Wage conference in Washington D.C. this past week. Attendees were a mix of labor leaders—traditional unions and Fight for $15; organizers from worker centers; economists; labor lawyers; staffers from labor rights champions; […]
The next few months promise to be challenging ones for unions, and workers who value their union rights. In New Hampshire, Missouri, and Kentucky, newly elected politicians have promised to go after organized labor by passing so-called “right to work” legislation. Indeed, many observers expect national right-to-work proposals to come up for debate in the […]
Many employees of the Catholic PeaceHealth system in the Northwest already have union representation – and another thousand will before the curtain falls on 2016. Last week a group of 100 health care techs at Longview’s PeaceHealth St. John’s voted to join SEIU Local 49 – and another 900 at PeaceHealth facilities in Vancouver have […]
Long before global corporations chasing low wages started outsourcing production of car parts, televisions and smartphones to the global South, the garment industry had paved the way. But a growing awareness that workers in these factories were exposed to hazardous chemicals and unguarded machinery, paid poverty wages, and suffered retaliation or even imprisonment when they […]