St Clare’s Hospital Retirees Win Damages in Pension Fight

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It’s a sad reality that too often Catholic institutions deny their employees their just rights, and do so with impunity because our cherished First Amendment freedoms prevent the federal government from sanctioning them. We hear about this most often when Catholic schoolteachers or adjunct faculty seek to organize in unions. Employees of Catholic hospitals enjoy the protections of the National Labor Relations Board – but their pensions are not regulated by the ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) laws that protect other private sector workers.

ERISA requires most employers to set aside sufficient funds in advance in a trust to pay workers’ retirement benefits, so if the company goes bankrupt the workers still get their pension. But in 2017 the Supreme Court ruled that religious hospitals are not necessarily bound by ERISA, and administrators of Catholic hospitals have been known to fill their employees’ pension accounts with IOUs. In the event of a bankruptcy, dedicated hospital workers are left holding the bag, and the bag is empty.

That’s what happened at St Clare’s Hospital in the Diocese of Albany. The hospital closed in 2008 with a badly underfunded pension plan. In 2019 the pension fund ran out of money and more than 1,100 nurses, EMTs, orderlies and others lost their much-needed pension checks. The workers filed a civil suit against the St. Clare’s and several officers of the corporation, including recently retired Bishop Scharfenberger. Last week a jury awarded $54.2 million in civil damages to the defrauded workers. Bishop Scharfenberger, assigned 10% of the liability, promptly filed for bankruptcy himself.

For more on the story, read this account in the National Catholic Register.

Disturbing Development at St John’s University

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For decades, St John’s University in New York City stood as an almost unique example of a private sector university whose tenured faculty enjoyed collective bargaining rights. Today it appears that this shining example of labor relations on the model of Catholic Social Teaching is in danger, and the consequences could threaten the union rights of thousands of Catholic school teachers across New York state.

Back in the 1970s Catholic school teachers across the country began to organize in unions – as is their right under Catholic Social Doctrine. However, Cardinal John Cody of Chicago took a hard line against the lay faculty, refusing to recognize their union and claiming exemption from the National Labor Relations Act under the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. The irony of claiming religious freedom in order to violate the tenets of the faith was seemingly lost on the Supreme Court, which duly ruled that Catholic school teachers had no legal protections under the NLRA. Catholic school teacher unions became the exception rather than the rule, existing only where the local Bishop tolerated them out of fidelity to Church teaching.

In a handful of states, state legislatures stepped into the gap where the NLRA had stood. The most prominent is New York, which gave the state’s Public Employee Relations Board jurisdiction over the Catholic schools (and universities) no longer covered under the NLRA. Teachers can vote for or against unionization in PERB elections and teachers at large Catholic school systems like those of the Archdiocese of New York or the Diocese of Buffalo enjoy union rights and contract protections. But developments at St. John’s could endanger those rights.

When the AAUP filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against St. John’s with the PERB over a contract bargaining dispute, the university went further than denying the university was engaged in an Unfair Labor Practice, raising the issue of First Amendment protections. If the university is successful in litigating this point, the faculty at St John’s and at Catholic schools across New York state could lose their union rights altogether. 

For more on the dispute at St John’s, read this account by Brian Fraga in the National Catholic Reporter.

Bipartisan House Majority Votes to Restore Federal Employee Union Rights

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On December 11, a bipartisan majority of House members voted to approve the Protect America’s Workforce Act, a bill that would restore the union rights of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees. The vote was 231-195, with 20 Republicans joining all the House Democrats to pass the legislation.

The bill was necessary because in March 2025 President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order stripping most federal employees of their union rights, citing a dubious claim of “national security.” The Catholic Labor Network responded with a letter to the President urging him to reconsider and respect the rights of workers to organize. To date, the Catholic Labor Network has not received a response from the administration.

The Protect America’s Workforce Act now moves to consideration in the Senate.

Nurses at Texas Catholic Hospitals Vote for Union Representation

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In an election held December 9th and 10th, registered nurses at St. Joseph Health in Texas’s Brazos Valley voted to join National Nurses United. The union reports that it will now represent “some 750 registered nurses who are part of St. Joseph Health Regional, with hospitals in Bryan and College Station, and three critical access facilities: St. Joseph Health Burleson Hospital in Caldwell, St. Joseph Health Grimes Hospital in Navasota, and St. Joseph Health Madison Hospital in Madisonville.”

Congratulations to the nurses on their win! We pray that the hospitals, part of the CommonSpirit network, and the nurses quickly reach agreement on a first contract. 

Windmill Farms Boycott

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Low wages. Grievous working conditions. Few workers in the United States face greater exploitation than migrant farm workers. In the 1970s, Cesar Chavez, motivated by his deep Catholic faith and his commitment to trade unionism, led the United Farm Workers in multiple organizing campaigns in California supported by consumer boycotts. Many Catholic social justice activists of the era cut their teeth by leafleting outside supermarkets in support of the UFW grape boycott. Today workers at Windmill Farms in Washington State are fighting to form a union with the UFW.

While most private sector workers are protected by the National Labor Relations Act, farm workers were excluded from that legislation. They can’t appeal to the federal government for a union representation election – they have to rely on strikes and boycotts to win fair treatment. That’s why the UFW is calling on supporters of farmworkers to boycott the mushrooms until the company recognizes the union and bargains a first contract. 

Given the strong Catholic ties to the UFW, you are invited to support this boycott and the farm workers involved. Windmill Farms is owned by Instar Asset Management, a Canadian private equity firm. To send them a message that you support farm workers, CLICK HERE and sign the UFW petition.

Loyola Marymount Faculty Rally to Demand Union Rights

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On Tuesday December 9, 2025, hundreds of Loyola Marymount University non-tenured faculty and their supporters rallied to demand that the university resume collective bargaining with their chosen union, SEIU Local 721. 

For more than a century, Catholic Social Teaching has expressly held that workers have the right to organize in unions and bargain collectively. That’s just what the non-tenure track faculty at LMU did this year, voting for representation by SEIU Local 721. But in September, the University abruptly ended negotiations and announced that it would no longer recognize or bargain with the union. Moreover, in order to avoid facing an Unfair Labor Practice charge before the National Labor Relations Board, the university had the audacity to cite its religious identity, claiming that under the First Amendment it was exempt from NLRB jurisdiction! 

In October, the Catholic Labor Network directed letters to LMU President, Board of Trustees and Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez expressing our concern about the situation. Referencing the Bishops’ 1986 Pastoral letter Economic Justice for All, which affirmed that employees of Catholic institutions enjoy the right to organize in unions, we asked the University to resume bargaining with the union chosen by the faculty, and encouraged the Archbishop to investigate the university’s apparent violation of Church teaching. Though a few members of the Board of Trustees did respond to our letters, the Catholic Labor Network has not, to date, received a response from either the university or Archbishop Gomez.

CLN Submission for National Pastoral on the Laity

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The USCCB Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth coordinated a consultation for a new national pastoral document on the laity. The Catholic Labor Network hosted three synodal listening sessions in October, 2025. This is a summary of what CLN submitted to the USCCB.

Across all consultations, participants discerned a common movement of the Spirit: a renewed awareness of the laity’s baptismal vocation and a deep desire to align the Church’s teaching, witness, and structures with the Gospel’s call to justice and love.

Their conversations revealed both realism and hope — realism about the challenges of polarization, institutional inertia, and inconsistency; hope in the courage and creativity of lay disciples who are already transforming the Church from within.

There were 5 main takeaways across the many conversations:

  1. Living Baptism through Work and Witness

    The most active theme across sessions was the integration of faith and work. Participants described baptism as a lifelong call to live as priest, prophet, and king: sanctifying daily labor, speaking prophetically against injustice, and exercising leadership through service. They see their professional and community work as sacred — not separate from Church life, but its extension into the world.

    Many called the dignity of work a life issue, linking their ministry with the defense of human dignity and the common good. They emphasized that Catholic Social Teaching is not an optional add-on but the living expression of the Gospel in public life.

  2. Co-Responsibility and Synodality

    A strong current of reflection focused on co-responsibility. Participants understand their role not as passive recipients of pastoral care but as partners in the Church’s mission. They long for a culture of shared discernment and collaboration between clergy and laity, rooted in synodality and mutual respect.

    They also voiced that co-responsibility must be invited and modeled from leadership. When clergy and bishops honor lay expertise, the Church becomes more credible and united in its witness to the world.

  3. The Holy Spirit’s Work of Renewal

    Participants saw the Holy Spirit actively renewing the Church through grassroots movements, lay networks, and ministries that unite faith with justice. The Spirit is at work wherever Catholics listen to one another, empower the marginalized, and act with courage and humility.

    They testified to seeing the Spirit in intercultural parish communities, in collective discernment, and in the perseverance of believers who continue to labor for justice despite discouragement. “Things move quickly when the Holy Spirit is at work,” one noted — capturing the sense of momentum that accompanied the discussions.

  4. Hopes and Concerns for the Future

    Participants expressed both gratitude and concern. Their hopes include the rise of new lay leadership, expansion of grassroots chapters, and greater preaching and education on Catholic Social Teaching. Their concerns focus on the Church’s credibility when Catholic employers fail to honor workers’ rights, and on the gap between social teaching and institutional practice.

    They believe renewal will come from conversion — a willingness of the Church to listen, learn, and act alongside the laity in building just relationships, both within and beyond its walls.

  5. The Joy that Sustains the Mission

    Despite honest frustration, the tone of the listening sessions was joyful and forward-looking. Participants spoke of “joy that is not toxic positivity,” grounded instead in trust that God is at work through ordinary people.

    They see joy as both fuel and fruit of mission — the quiet confidence that the Gospel can still change hearts, workplaces, and systems.This joy expressed itself in laughter, solidarity, and gratitude for belonging to a Church that, though imperfect, continues to call and send.

The overarching takeaway is clear: the Holy Spirit is animating a renewal of the Church through the witness of the laity. Participants affirmed that the future of Catholic life will depend on deepening co-responsibility, recovering the dignity of work, and embodying Catholic Social Teaching in every level of Church life.

They envision a Church that listens before it lectures, collaborates rather than controls, and lives its teachings from the ground up. In their words and actions, lay Catholics are revealing that renewal is not a program — it is already happening wherever faith, justice, and joy meet.

Thanks for Immigrants

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GIVE THANKS FOR IMMIGRANTS by Bill Droel


Our flag is the number one symbol of our country. Its design of 13 stripes and 50 stars means unity through pluralism. It represents our belief in a layered government with authority given by citizenry. The flag stands for all the positive values of our experiment in democracy.
There are other symbols of our country. This month features pictures and displays of the harvest rituals and feasts that occurred in the early 1600s in Massachusetts, Virginia and elsewhere. These serene images obviously compress history. They are influenced by famous paintings, including one from 1915, The First Thanksgiving by Jean Louis Ferris (1893-1930) and one from 1943, the still popular Four Freedoms by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978). Thanksgiving was celebrated regionally until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) designated a national day of Thanksgiving to “Almighty God…for fruitful fields and healthful skies.”
The Statue of Liberty is another symbol of our beautiful, bounteous country. It is a fitting image to link with Thanksgiving.
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), whose Italian parents immigrated to France, was involved with a circle of people who were aware of how France aided our struggle for independence. They considered the United States a model for their own movement for liberty. They raised money to donate a statue symbolizing their appreciation for our country. They wanted the spirit of their gift to keep moving in the sense that the United States would support and sustain liberty among freedom-seeking people around the world.
A preview of the gift appeared at the Philadelphia Expo in 1876, but it took until 1880 before a complete statue was delivered to the United States embassy in Paris.
It wasn’t until 1886, however, that the statue was dedicated in New York’s Upper Bay. In the meantime a private fundraising campaign in our country was needed to secure the statue’s site, particularly to finance its pedestal. Part of the fundraising was the auction of a 14-line sonnet, The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887). Her ancestors were Jewish-Russians who emigrated here before our Revolutionary War. At the time her poem was commissioned, Lazarus, sufficiently known in literary circles, was volunteering at Emigrant Aid Society on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The poem was mostly neglected but in 1903 it was written on a bronze tablet and only in 1945 was it mounted on the statue’s pedestal. The poem and the statue came to represent the generosity of our country’s residents. So thankful, in fact, that we generously open our hearts to “…your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The statue’s symbolism of thanksgiving is, of course, reinforced by its proximity to Ellis Island, where from 1892 to 1954 many freedom-seeking immigrants entered our country, including my grandmother. (For the record, Ellis Island is mostly in New Jersey and Liberty Island itself is in New York.)
Each generation of arrivals enriched our country with creativity, social capital, unique culture, patriotic service and faith. These are their gift to subsequent generations. Thus our table prayer on November 27th 2025, is not only one of thanks for God’s bounty, and thanks for the privilege of residing in this country, and thanks for the family and friends gathered, but also thanks for our ancestors and for those new arrivals who keep the gift moving.


P.S. Fr. Gary Graf of Chicago is walking all the way from the boyhood home of Robert Prevost/Pope Leo XIV in Dalton, Illinois to Ellis Island to raise awareness about the plight of today’s immigrants. Follow him at www.ourladyoftheheights.org.

Petition: Stand with LMU Faculty for Faith and Justice

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Faithful Catholics and allies stand with the non-tenure track faculty at Loyola Marymount University.

On September 12, 2025, LMU’s Board of Trustees announced that it would no longer recognize the faculty union representing its non-tenure track professors—invoking a “religious exemption” to end collective bargaining. This decision directly contradicts Catholic Social Doctrine, which affirms that the right to organize comes from God, not the NLRB.

The Church has been clear—from Rerum Novarum to Economic Justice for All:

“All church institutions must fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively with the institution through whatever association or organization they freely choose.”

Last week, LMU’s faculty voted by 90% to authorize a strike if the administration refuses to return to the bargaining table. They hope it doesn’t come to that—but they are prepared to act with courage and conscience to defend their rights and their students’ future.

As members and friends of the Catholic Labor Network, we call on Loyola Marymount University’s leadership to honor its Catholic identity by resuming negotiations and recognizing the union chosen by its faculty.

We stand in solidarity with LMU’s faculty, with SEIU, and with all workers striving to exercise their God-given right to organize for the common good.

We urge LMU’s President, Board of Trustees, and Jesuit leaders to return to the bargaining table in good faith—so that justice, dialogue, and Catholic identity may prevail.

✍️ Add your name in solidarity.

Photo credit: SEIU 721

Pilgrimage to Rome with CLN and the Labor Leaders from Chicago

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This week, Labor Leaders from Chicago, plus a few others from around the country, will journey to Rome as Pilgrims. 2025 is a Jubilee Year and the theme chosen by Pope Francis was “Pilgrims of Hope.” At a time when working people in the United States are under attack like never before from their own government: with hundreds of thousands of Federal Employees having Collective Bargaining Rights stripped away, even more laid off, the agencies designed to protect workers like the NLRB defunded and powerless, and a federal budget that strips millions of the poor from having health care, this is the time that we need hope, fraternity and humility.

We know that no matter the time that we are in, no matter the power of those that are attacking workers, we are not alone. We will never be alone. Christ lived as we lived, in the home of a worker. Our Church teaches us to stand In solidarity with workers, immigrants and the poor.

While in Rome, union leaders from the Chicago Federation of Labor, UNITE HERE, Service Employees International Union, Teamsters, International Association of Machinists, Laborers Union, and the Catholic Labor Network will have a true pilgrimage together: attending a Mass everyday, touring holy sites throughout Rome, passing through 3 of the Holy Doors, meeting with the Dicastery for Integral Human Development to discuss The Future of Work – Labor after Laudato Si, Artificial Intelligence and Migration, meeting with Italian Unions about Faith and Organizing, and the high point – a private Audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.

It’s my hope that these shared experiences over the next six days will lead all us who are attending to be able to find hope in these difficult moments, give us the encouragement to continue working for justice and provide us with moments of grace where we can renew our individual faith, trust in Jesus and give us the encouragement to share the Gospel and the teachings of the Church with the world.

We are all sinners beloved by God, and without the humility to ask for his help we are all on our own. As Pope Francis liked to say, “Pray for me.” But pray for all of us on this pilgrimage together. Pray that we all are able to renew the struggle for the Dignity of Workers in this World together.

 

Please follow along for more pictures and reflections from those on pilgrimage on our Facebook and Instagram pages!