A Guest contribution by Mary Entoma, UNITE HERE Local 11 In the early hours of August 11th, Unite Here Local 11 members and community allies joined the United Farm Workers in their march to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign AB 2183. Worker power filled the streets. Moved by their faith to join in, these […]
Window on National Campaign to Raise Standards for Airport Employees Thousands of airport employees in Northern Virginia, ranging from wheelchair attendants to aircraft cabin cleaners, lack paid sick days and regularly must work ill or injured. The Catholic Labor Network met some of those workers recently at a meeting organized by SEIU 32BJ, which represents […]
We’ve often heard it said that Catholic Social Teaching is the Church’s best-kept secret. The Church’s social doctrine offers a radical critique of today’s institutions that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has broken into seven major themes, such as “Life and Dignity of the Human Person” and “Option for the Poor and Vulnerable.” Recently […]
Planning your Mass for Labor Day weekend? Consider these prayers of the faithful found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ web page of Labor Day Resources. We pray for a renewal of spirit for the men and women who must work in jobs that ignore the dignity of their personhood. We pray to the […]
Parishes that choose an electrical upgrade or a solar installation by PRO Lighting & Solar may find themselves putting a parishioner to work. That’s because of a unique partnership between an area Catholic high school and IBEW Local 212. High school students at Cincinnati’s Elder High School have an opportunity to get a jump on […]
Inspired by Laudato Si, a growing number of Catholic parishes are reducing their use of fossil fuels by investing in energy efficiency and sometimes installing solar panels to meet their energy needs. That’s important, but in a construction industry marked by widespread wage theft and high workplace injury rates, what are they doing to make […]
On Wednesday July 20 the cooks, cashiers and dishwashers who staff the Senate cafeteria escalated their fight for fair wages and working conditions with a civil disobedience action in front of the Senate’s Dirksen office building. After a rally, 17 workers and supporters were arrested for blocking traffic as they called on the Senators to […]
Will it Get a Senate Vote? Our labor laws no longer effectively protect workers who want to form a union. Employers have learned that the penalties for retaliating against workers seeking to exercise their legal right to organize are minor, so firing the ringleaders of any union campaign can be a good investment. And even […]
When Pope Leo XIII issued his Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum in 1891, he contended that according to the natural law, every worker was entitled to a living wage. In a growing number of communities around the United States, activists have launched living wage certification programs for employers – programs that inform consumers which firms have […]
Poor People’s Campaign Brings out Faith, Labor Activists for Economic Justice Have you heard of the Poor People’s Campaign? Back in 1968, Martin Luther King had a vision of poor people organizing across racial lines to transform American society. Fifty years later, that vision was picked up by leaders such as Rev. William Barber of […]