Most of the workers that keep an airport running – from cabin cleaners, to wheelchair attendants, to food service workers – are employed by contractors, not the airport itself. In the absence of clear and fair labor standards in contract solicitations, vendors slash worker wages and benefits to the bone to submit the lowest bid. […]
This month nurses at Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas voted by a landslide to join National Nurses United (NNU), making Seton the first Catholic hospital in Texas with a union. With 72% in favor of the union, NNU will now represent some 800 nurses at the hospital, part of the Ascension Health chain, a […]
Domestic workers are falling through the gaps in our labor and employment laws. That’s why the Catholic Labor Network recently joined dozens of nannies, housekeepers and home-based health care workers from the District and beyond, visiting DC Council members and urging them to support a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. Back in the 1930s, when […]
A Guest Contribution from CLN Member Pamela Keresztesy Ultium Cells, LLC, a battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio, is a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solutions. The plant mass produces batteries to support GM’s electrical vehicle assembly and for other industries including aerospace, marine, heavy trucking, and rail. During the construction process, GM […]
CLN Testifies in Support The right of workers to form unions and bargain collectively is one of the first principles of modern Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Leo XIII first enunciated this right in his 1891 Encyclical Rerum Novarum, and Pope Benedict XIV reaffirmed this teaching in Caritas in Veritate, arguing that “the repeated calls issued […]
Sodexo food service workers from government agencies across Washington DC rallied Tuesday at the Capitol, following a similar action last week in New York City at the Federal Reserve. Represented by the hotel and food service union UNITE HERE, the workers, hard hit by inflation, are calling for a living wage in upcoming contracts. The […]
A Guest Contribution from CLN Member Greg Guthrie This e-book, Union Communion – Labor Unions and the Catholic Church, presents the Bishops’ authoritative annual Labor Day statements supporting labor unions. These statements are framed by commentary by America’s current preeminent Labor Priests, “America’s most prominent labor leader,” and the Catholic Labor Network. The book intends […]
A Labor Day Homily by Fr. Sinclair Oubre, Catholic Labor Network Spiritual Moderator In the Spring of 1995, Road Warriors from the United Paperworkers Union came to the Sabine Area Central Labor Committee meeting at the Oil Workers Union Hall in Port Arthur, Texas. They shared with us how the A.E. Staley Company had locked […]
A Labor Day Reflection from CLN Spiritual Moderator Fr. Sinclair Oubre “Cause if it’s always level on the floor where you’re working and your telephone is OSHA approved When you tell me how much you’re spending on safety, pardon me if I’m not moved. Ever since 1970 the law has been on my side. […]
New this year: Non-Tenure Track Faculty at Santa Clara University Happy Labor Day! Readers of this newsletter know well that for more than 130 years the Catholic Church has taught that workers have the right to organize in unions. This is no less true of workers at Catholic institutions than those at secular and for-profit […]