By Catholic Labor Network Spiritual Moderator Fr. Sinclair Oubre Back in 2001, I was reassigned from my position as a tribunal judge to a parish pastor. To put it mildly, I was not excited about getting back to being pulled in numerous directions, and trying to shoehorn a full pastoral program into a pastor-plus-part-time-secretary budget. […]
Compass Group, a national food service vendor, operates cafeterias throughout Washington DC. Its employees feed students at Catholic University of America (CUA), George Washington University, and American University; tourists and visitors at the Smithsonian Institution museums; and diplomats at the World Bank. Unfortunately, in today’s inflationary environment, too many Compass Group workers earn less than […]
Courtesy of CLN Board Member Donna Mitchell After a lengthy illness, the Most Reverend Fernand Joseph Cheri, III, OFM, Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, transitioned on March 21, 2023. New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond expressed what most who knew Bishop Cheri are feeling about this 71-year-old Black Catholic icon: “We mourn his death and […]
In the latest development at Starbucks, workers at more than 100 unionized Starbucks locations walked off the job Wednesday to protest unfair labor practices by the coffee giant. The move came as the company prepared for its annual shareholder meeting today. In a union organizing campaign with few parallels in recent decades, Starbucks baristas have […]
It is hard to believe that in the twenty-first century child labor would be a problem in the United States. Yet recent developments have demonstrated that this is indeed the case, and that there are elected officials in the United States who would like to expand its scope. Just last month the nation’s conscience was […]
Most economists would have us believe that the free market is the best form of social organization. Each individual is the best judge of his or her own needs and should be free to negotiate every economic transaction with minimal public regulation or interference. People are rational and knowledgeable; they are capable of calculating costs […]
America recently learned of the death of Bishop David O’Connell. An Irish immigrant who ministered to the poor and sought to quell gang violence in Los Angeles, the beloved Los Angeles auxiliary bishop was murdered in his own home. The Bishop was an important friend of labor in Southern California. As Gustavo Arellano recalled in […]
courtesy of CLN Treasurer Joseph A. McCartin, Georgetown University On February 18, 2023, former AFL-CIO president and long-time board member of the Catholic Labor Network, Thomas Reilly Donahue Jr., went to his heavenly reward. If the pantheon of prominent U.S. Catholic labor leaders is filled with a multitude of revered names, from Mother Jones to […]
Courtesy of Catholic Labor Network member Jeremy DaCruz In the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts, a city famous for its labor struggles, cafeteria workers receive wages barely above the state minimum wage. Over 100 years ago, immigrant women fought for higher wages and better working conditions. Now, the mostly immigrant women who make sure that the […]
Study finds Unfair Labor Practice Charges in 4 out of 10 of Union Elections Until 1935, workers who wanted a union usually had to strike to get it. It was a recipe for perpetual industrial conflict. That’s why legislators passed the Wagner Act, providing an orderly way to adjust workplace disputes. Employers were forbidden to […]