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 French multinational operates institutional cafeterias across the country at corporate offices, colleges and universities (including many Catholic ones), and in government buildings, the focus of the recent actions. Sodexo is the largest federal food service contractor.

For more than a decade, UNITE HERE has been organizing to transform the institutional food service sector from a poverty-wage industry into one featuring living wage jobs, affordable health care, and retirement benefits. While the union has reported success in much of the sector, Sodexo has remained an obstacle, stridently resisting organizing efforts and favoring a low-wage business model. According to the union, some Sodexo workers based in Washington DC are paid the DC minimum wage of $16.10/hour – that is, about $32,000 per year for a full-time worker, well below the cost of living in the expensive capital region.

According to Catholic Social Teaching, every worker is entitled to a living wage. This principle was first elaborated in Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum [45]. In Laborem Exercens, St. Pope John Paul II explained further that a just wage should be sufficient to support a worker’s family [19].

“Last year in September, I had to move out of a house I’d been in for 14 years because I couldn’t afford to keep up with rent,” said Venorica Tucker, a banquet server/bartender at the House of Representatives. “I live with my son, so we chip in and try to make it. It’s difficult, even with their help.”

On September 28 the Catholic Labor Network will be hosting a listening session with Sodexo workers. Interested? CLICK TO REGISTER

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 out 760 of their fellow workers in June of 1993. They showed a video of a 1994 sit-down protest that was held at the Staley gates, and the pepper spraying of union members and their supporters by Decatur police. Much to my surprise, sitting down at the company’s front gate, and getting pepper sprayed was a priest. Later, I learned he was Fr. Martin Mangan, pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Decatur.

During the Summer of 1995, I was working on my license in canon law at The Catholic University of America. The summer program required us to attend classes in June and July. When classes ended, I reached out to Fr. Martin, and asked if I could drop by Decatur on my ride back to Texas. In my heart, I hoped he could teach me how to be a “labor priest.”

After riding from Washington, D.C. to Decatur, Illinois, I arrived at St. James Catholic Church. Fr. Martin greeted me, and invited me to go to dinner with him. I knew that this would be the time to ask him the question, “How do you do ‘labor priest?’” Before, I got the question out of my mouth, Fr. Martin looked me in the eyes, and asked, “How do you do ‘labor priest?’” It was immediately apparent that he was making it up on the fly just like I was in Southeast Texas.

Living out our lives as Catholics and as workers, we can find ourselves asking a very similar question to the one that Fr. Martin asked me: “How do you do Catholic worker?”

For many Catholic parents, the Holy Family is the model and source of hope. Mary and Joseph know what it is like to raise a child. Mary knows what it is to watch with horror as forces plot against her son. She knows the crushing sorrow of losing a child. So, parents turn to St. Joseph and St. Mary, and ask for their intercession to assist in meeting the difficulty of family life. Mary and Joseph know the situations parents struggle with without having to explain it.

As Catholic working men and women on this 2022 Labor Day, I suggest to you that there are many Servants of God, Venerables, Blesseds, and Saints who know your work, know your struggle, know your pain, and also know your craft and, by your labor, know your cooperation in God’s ongoing creation.

So, if you are a farmer, call on Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, a 20^th century Austrian farmer, martyred by the Nazis. He knew well that trials early mornings and late evenings, as well as the bountifulness of God’s harvest.

So, if you are a domestic in a home or a housekeeper in a hotel or hospital, call on Servant of God Julia Greeley, who was born into slavery at Hannibal, Missouri, and worked as a domestic in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. She knew well the difficult work, but also the reward to assisting families she loved.

So, if you are a teacher, call on St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. A convert to the Catholic faith, and the founder of our nation’s Catholic school system. She knew well the challenges of educating immigrant children with insufficient resources, but also the wonders of opening the temporal and the spiritual world to young minds.

So, if you are a merchant mariner, call on Servant of God Captain Leonard La Rue, who rescued 14,000 North Korean refugees in 1950, and spent the next 47 years as a Benedictine monk. He knew well the might and terror of the sea, but also how God carries mariners and their ships in the palm of His hand.

So, if you are a beautician or a hairdresser, call upon Venerable Pierre Toussaint. A Haitian-American and former slave, who became renowned in New York for his skills, and for his great philanthropic generosity. He knew well the suffering and despair which his clients carried in their hearts, but also  how to bring out the hidden beauty of every person.

So, if you are a music teacher, call upon Blessed Maria Belanger.  A Canadian, she studied at the New York Conservatory from 1916 to 1918, and later became a sister of the Congregation of Jesus-Marie. She knew well the challenges of passing on great music to children, but also the joy that came when children discovered the eternal beauty of these works.

So, if you are a farmworker, call on St. Isadore. If you are a baker can call on Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer. If you are a construction laborer call on Venerable Matt Talbots. If you are a miner call on Blessed Nikolaus Gross. The holy women and men who know our lives, our labor, our challenges, our despairs, and our joys go on and on.

On this Labor Day, I wish to leave you with this wonderful message, “We don’t have to figure out how to be a good Catholic worker.” The path has already been blazed for us. Holy women and men have radically followed our Lord Jesus as intentional disciples. They can teach us much about our craft, and they can teach us much about how to follow Jesus as Catholic faithful. And they stand ready to intercede for us every day, in all our needs.

All Holy Men and Women, pray for us!

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.