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 […]
The AFL-CIO held its convention last week in Philadelphia, and the Catholic Labor Network’s own Fr. Clete Kiley was chosen to give the invocation! “After two years of covid and so many setbacks, we declare that our work has inherent value, and every worker has inherent dignity given by You the Spirit of God, the […]
Dear Chairperson Silverman and members of the Committee, My name is Clayton Sinyai and I am here today to testify today in support of B24-712, the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022. I testify as Executive Director of the Catholic Labor Network. My organization brings together Catholic union activists with Catholic clergy, religious […]
On June 16, the Catholic Labor Network joined DC domestic workers and other faith leaders testifying in support of a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights bill in hearings before the Labor Committee of the Washington DC City Council. While Catholic Social Teaching holds that all workers have dignity and deserve protection of their rights, historically […]
Supportive Pastor Instructed them in Catholic Social Teaching When hotel workers at the Ritz-Carlton in California’s Half Moon Bay, many of them recent immigrants, decided they wanted to form a union, the company hit back – hard. Several of the workers were parishioners at nearby Our Lady of the Pillar Parish, and they turned to […]
As you may know, Pope Francis has put the Church in “listening mode” in preparation for a worldwide gathering or “synod” of Bishops in 2023. Perhaps your parish has held a “listening session” about the challenges facing the Church and about how the Spirit is moving among us today. At the invitation of the US […]
No single newspaper can afford to have reporters stationed in every nation and on every beat. For that reason, much of what we read in our newspapers and web sites originates with a wire service such as the Associated Press. Reporters employed by such wire services write up the news, and copy from their stories […]