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.

And I just come to work here, I don’t come to die.”

This past June, I had the privilege of sailing with 219 future United States merchant mariners. The 2022 Texas A&M Maritime Academy Cruise began in Galveston. We sailed to Savannah to take on bunkers, and then headed to Charleston, North Carolina. After three days in Charleston, we let go the lines, and sailed for 13 days to Reykjavik, Iceland. I departed the ship in Iceland, and they sailed to New York, and then back to Galveston.

On Saturday, June 18, 2022, our course took us over latitude 41 degrees, 43.7 minutes North, and longitude 49 degrees, 56.3 West, the site the RMS Titanic disaster.

That evening, we gathered on the fantail at 11:20 P.M. to pray for the merchant mariners and passengers who died on the morning of April 15, 1912, 110 years ago. I led the Rite of Funerals Outside of Mass, which concluded at 11:37 P.M.

In preparation for the service, a short poem was written by 2^nd mate Jon Allen, and signed by the 40 cadets and crewmembers. At 11:40 P.M. we passed over the wreck and the souls who lie in rest, and the boson placed the poem-in-a-bottle into the sea.

In both the movie Titanic and A Night to Remember, much attention is focused on the passengers and their struggles for survival. With only a few exceptions, the more than 900 crewmembers are faceless bodies in the background. Of these crewmembers, 688 lost their lives that night. These were not just the highly trained members of the British Merchant Navy like Commander Edward Smith and Chief Engineer Joseph Bell, but stokers, messmen, and room stewards from Southampton, and many small English towns along the coast.

None of these merchant sailors knew when they left land on April 11, 1912, that they would never return home. As ILWU longshoreman Harry Stamper wrote, “We just come to work here. We don’t come to die.”

Growing up in Port Arthur we have had many maritime tragedies and industrial disasters.

• On April 11, 1926, the tanker Gulf of Venezuela blew up at the Gulf Oil Refinery dock in Port Arthur. Twenty-five crewmembers were killed and eleven workers were injured.
• Some time between February 4 and February 6, 1963, the SS Marine Sulphur Queen, having sailed from the Beaumont sulphur docks disappeared with the loss of her 39 crewmembers.
• On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1977, a major explosion occurred at the Port Arthur Texaco Refinery, seven men were killed, and 26 were injured.
• On Wednesday, December 9, 1981, an explosion and flash fire in a catalytic cracking unit at the Gulf Oil refinery injured at 21 people.

Sadly this list can go on and on. Most recently a construction worker was killed at the Valero Refinery on February 18 of this year.

Let me paraphrase St. Paul, “The computer programmer cannot say to the janitor, ‘I do not need you,’ nor again the banker to the to the plumber, ‘I do not need you.’”

All moral work is important. All moral work is essential. All moral work is a participation in God’s ongoing creation. If the work that is done was not done, our quality of life would be so much less.

The AFL-CIO stresses on Workers Memorial Day (April 28), “Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living.” As we enjoy the prosperity of our lives, we are called to work for the safety of our fellow workers, because . . .

“We just come to work here. We don’t come to die.”

 

Church, Unions Mobilize in Support

The United Farm Workers are on the march! In California members of the UFW set out from Delano on foot in the Summer heat August 3. They will arrive in Sacramento on August 26.

What do they want? The right to vote by mail in union elections.

A history lesson: in 1935, the U.S. Government passed the National Labor Relations Act, setting up the election process that allows workers to choose a union representative. But the Act excluded farm workers from its protections.

In 1975, under pressure by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union, California passed an Agricultural Labor Relations Act to give farm workers the right to vote in union elections. The ALRA was an important step forward for the state’s farm workers, but it needs improvement.

Under current law, farmworkers in the Golden State who want to form a union must vote on the property of their employer, which opens opportunities for intimidation. UFW members are calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to sign AB 2183, a bill that would allow workers to vote for a union by mail if they prefer.

The California Catholic Conference has come out strongly in support of the policy change, and the Church has mobilized to welcome the marchers along the route. When the marchers passed through Fresno, for instance, they were joined by Bishop Joseph Brennan (pictured).

The farm workers are receiving similar solidarity from the state’s labor movement. Also present in Fresno was a sizeable contingent of union members from the Los Angeles hotel workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 11. (See Report from the UFW March by Mary Entoma.)

The Catholic Labor Network has urged Governor Newsom to sign AB 2183 and is working with its California members and contacts to get additional messages to the governor. If you would like to send the Governor a message in support of farm workers, CLICK HERE.

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 many of the affected workers, and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP).

The workers from Dulles International Airport and Washington National Airport – many of whom are immigrants from Africa or Latin America – are calling on the airports authority to implement a paid sick leave policy covering contractors employed at the airport.

During the meeting, several workers testified to the problems created by the absence of paid sick days. One worker, a baggage encoder, explained, “I have a condition of gout, and sometimes it will flare up. I will try to ride it out [at work] because it is more painful to lose the pay.” Other workers spoke of returning to work too quickly after major surgery, to avoid missing a paycheck and possibly getting fired.

The local campaign is part of a national effort to boost wages, benefits and working conditions for airport workers. Usually employed by contractors, the security guards, skycaps, cabin cleaners, and others who keep an airport running are too often underpaid and undervalued. Many have organized with the SEIU.

The Catholic Labor Network will be working with the union and VICPP to urge the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to adopt a mandatory paid sick leave policy for contractors at the two airports.

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 a career as a union electrician by taking a course at the union’s nearby training center. Participants who take the elective visit the union’s apprenticeship and training center two days per week.

While many Catholic high schools focus exclusively on college placements, Elder appreciates that a construction apprenticeship can also be a promising career path. Union electricians can earn $30, $40, $50 or more per hour, depending on the region of the country they live – a salary competitive with many white-collar jobs. Most IBEW members (and other union construction workers) also enjoy fully employer-paid family health insurance as well as a defined-benefit pension, both increasingly rare in other segments of the economy. And many eventually go on to start their own companies.

Union apprenticeship programs are supervised by a joint committee of union representatives and contractors who employ them. “Half the JATC (Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee) are graduates from Elder High School,” says Training Director Charlie Kenser. “A lot of our members are Elder grads.”