Catholic Labor Network testimony on DC Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Legislation

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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 and lay social ministry leaders to promote worker justice. We are a national organization but are based here in Washington DC at Georgetown University and have many members in the District of Columbia.

We understand that there are more than 9,000 domestic workers in the District of Columbia – maids, nannies and home health care workers who serve in the homes of District residents. Many are recent immigrants. Unlike most workers, domestic workers do not have the right to organize in labor unions to fight for better wages and working conditions. Their workplace safety is not protected by OSHA. They frequently face sexual harassment and wage theft.

This bill would begin to address the challenges domestic workers face in the workplace. This bill would ensure that domestic workers are protected from discrimination and sexual harassment under DC’s human rights law and that they are protected from unsafe working conditions under the District’s occupational safety and health laws. It would also guarantee domestic workers a written employment contract, reducing the incidence of wage theft and exploitation.

Scripture tells us in Matthew 25 that we will be judged according to how we have treated the least privileged of our brothers and sisters. Consequently the Catholic Labor Network urges the DC Council to adopt the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022.

CLN, faith leaders testify for DC Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights

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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 domestic workers – nannies, housekeepers, and many home-based health care workers – have been excluded from the protection of our labor laws. Consequently, pressed by the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, a growing number of cities and states have passed legislation to extend workplace protections to those whose workplace is a private home.

The DC Human Rights Act, which protects workers from discrimination and from sexual harassment, currently excludes domestic workers from its protection. The proposed legislation, the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022, would amend the act to include domestic workers. It would also extend the protection of Washington DC’s occupational safety and health law to cover domestic workers, and guarantee these workers a written contract of their terms of employment, which should reduce the frequency of wage theft in this sector.

In February, the Catholic Labor Network hosted a “listening session” for faith-based activists in the District of Columbia, where domestic worker Antonia Surco related her experience as a domestic worker. Surco, an immigrant from Peru (many domestic workers in DC today are recent immigrants), also testified before the Council. She explained,

It was a great surprise to me, after years of work, to learn that we, domestic workers, are EXCLUDED from the Washington, DC, Bill of Human Rights. We know from history since eras of slavery, that this is an inhuman legacy left for us. It is unbelievable that this beautiful and important work of caring for human lives does not have the protection that it deserves by the laws of Washington, DC. That is why today the echo of our voice asks to be INCLUDED in the Washington, DC, Bill of Human Rights.

Michele Dunne of the Franciscan Action Network, who attended the listening session, also testified in support of the legislation. She noted,

As people of faith, we are called to care about the common good and to respect the dignity of work as well as the rights of workers; both are core principles of Catholic social teaching. We are called to be in solidarity with our sisters and brothers, particularly when their rights are not respected as they should be. This is certainly the case with the more than 9,000 domestic workers in DC, who have been excluded from the normal protections extended to other workers for far too long.

Matthew 25 warns us that we will be judged by how we have treated the least advantaged of our brothers and sisters. It’s time for DC to join the 10 states that have already passed legislation to extend the protections of our employment law to domestic workers.

Half Moon Bay Ritz Workers Form Union

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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 their Pastor, Fr. Jose Corral.

After meeting with the workers and hearing their stories, Fr. Corral reflected on Catholic Social Teaching and then penned a remarkable letter to the group, explaining…

To all my concerned Parishioners regarding protecting your family by promoting a more secure and prosperous common life: The Roman Catholic Church has a long history of supporting workers and workers’ rights dating back two centuries to Pope Leo XIII. The Church’s teachings tell us we are to support the dignity of every human including those that provide us with our basic needs whether it be providing our tables with fruits & vegetables or providing a myriad of services from hospitality, cooking and serving food at our restaurants… I feel obliged to communicate to you, your right to organize and ask for workplace protections through representatives. Unions are a way for workers to negotiate for just wages, benefits and better working conditions, and to look after the rights of vulnerable workers…

The letter was exactly what the workers needed to take courage and exercise their rights. The workers voted 110 to 103 to form a union and join UNITE HERE Local 2. Congratulations to the Ritz-Carlton workers, and please pray for their speedy success in winning a just contract!

To read Fr. Corral’s letter in its entirety, CLICK HERE.

Catholic Labor Network holds synod listening sessions for workers, allies

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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 Conference of Catholic Bishops, national Catholic organizations like the Catholic Labor Network were also invited to participate in this process.

We answered the call by organizing five synod listening sessions conducted via zoom – including one special listening session exclusively for Catholic union members, and another specifically for priests and religious active in ministering to workers. Facilitated by Jeff Korgen of Korgen Associates, the listening sessions sought to discern how the Church is responding to workers in the current day.

A number of common themes emerged from the discussions Read more

Bishops to close Catholic News Service at Years’ End

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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 is sold to media outlets across the country.

For more than a century the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has operated its own wire service, known as Catholic News Service. The reporters there – union members represented by TNG-CWA (The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America) – provide professional coverage of events in the Catholic Church, stories that regularly appear in your Diocesan newspaper or website.

Unfortunately, after 2022 this will no longer the case. In early May, the USCCB announced that Catholic News Service would cease operations, at least in the United States, at the end of the year. (There seem to be plans to keep a Vatican office open).

The Catholic Labor Network is saddened to see this important institution closed. Most secular reporters employed by for-profit newspapers and magazines lack the in-depth knowledge of the Catholic Church that informs the coverage of Catholic News Service. Reporters like Mark Pattison and Dennis Sadowski, for example, have brought their sound understanding of Catholic Social Teaching on labor and work to their coverage of Catholic Labor Network activities.

Without the important work of Catholic News Service reporters, American Catholics will know less about their Church. And that’s a tragedy.

Shareholder Showdown at Wendy’s, Part II

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Peltz fends off “vote no” effort

Despite a vigorous “vote no” campaign, Wendy’s Chair Nelson Peltz and his Trian Partners colleagues held on to their seats at Wendy’s late-May annual shareholder meeting.

Wendy’s has been under public scrutiny for some time as the lone fast-food chain to spurn the Fair Food Program, a third-party certification program monitored by workers to enforce basic labor standards in farms supplying produce.

The Fair Food Program was created by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farm labor organization based in the tomato fields of Immokalee, Florida, who recently visited Trian Partners’ headquarters in New York City, calling on shareholders to vote no on Peltz and his team (pictured).

The origins of this year’s “vote no” campaign can be traced to a 2021 shareholder resolution submitted by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, New York. Sister Margaret Magee, OSF explained how the sisters “met with members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on zoom calls, learning about labor conditions in the fields.”

“We often hear the expression that we are the voice of the voiceless,” Magee continued. “But these people have voices; it’s that our institutions and corporations and government are socially deaf. We add our voice to their voices so the deafness can be overcome.”

The Sisters held shares in Wendy’s, and, working through Investor Advocates for Social Justice (IASJ) submitted a shareholder resolution calling for a review of the company’s procurement practices. Pointing out that human rights violations in their agricultural supply chain could pose a risk to shareholders, the Sisters asked specific questions about third-party audits of labor standards at farms that supplied produce to Wendy’s.

When other shareholders got on board, management decided to endorse the effort, and the 2021 shareholder resolution passed overwhelmingly. But the report management ultimately produced was a puff piece that dodged the hard questions, leading IASJ and other shareholders to deem management nonresponsive.

Management’s dismissive response to the shareholder resolution drew public attention to another corporate governance issue at Wendy’s. Trian Partners, Peltz’s investment group, holds less than 20% of the stock but dominates the board’s leadership positions; Wendy’s is badly in need of independent directors.

IASJ and another shareholder group, Majority Action, led the charge for Peltz’s removal at the May 18 shareholder meeting. A number of public pension funds lined up in support of the no vote. The AFL-CIO Office of Investment included the “vote no” campaign in its 2022 Key Votes survey.

 

Social Doctrine

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The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine Part Seven
by Bill Droel

There are scores of books explaining Catholic social doctrine. The outline for many of them is a chronology of papal encyclicals (from Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 On the Condition of Labor to Pope Francis’ 2020 On Social Friendship). Or the author might pick issues like peace, health care delivery, labor relations and the environment; quoting relevant official documents in each chapter.
The Church’s Best-Kept Secret by Mark Shea (New City Press [2020]; 16.95) is different. In 159 pages written for a popular audience, Shea reflects on four social principles, giving two chapters to each: the dignity of each life, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity. The encyclicals are referenced along the way. However, Shea prefers to illustrate the principles with lots of Scripture, some quotations from the early church and citations from C.S. Lewis (1898-1963).
Ethical consistency is Shea’s recurring theme. Some Catholics agree with our doctrine on some issues but not others. Other Catholics, including some bishops, claim to be consistent but mistakenly say one issue has greater moral weight than another. And some Catholics disingenuously claim to support Catholic doctrine, but they only use it to oppose policies or politicians they don’t like. “If your focus is on abortion, fine,” Shea writes. “But do not pretend to focus on it while actually spending your time and energy fighting against the Magisterium…and in favor of policies that harm the environment, fighting against a living wage and in favor of laissez faire capitalism.” The tone of The Church’s Best-Kept Secret is easy-going, not technical. But, as this riff shows, Shea can hammer points as needed.
There’s a difference between the world-as-it-is and “the way it is supposed to be,” Shea writes. Everyone has at least a dim notion of perfectibility, of a better situation, of the world as we hope it could be. He goes on to quote G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936): In the here-and-now people “do not differ much about what things they will call evil; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.” For example, some people justify torture during wartime (though doing so became harder in the United States after the publication of photos from Abu Ghraib Prison). Yes, says Shea, soldiers sometimes have to kill combatants in self-defense. But the moment an enemy becomes a prisoner, torture is absolutely forbidden “as gravely and intrinsically immoral.”
In the same way some people excuse abortion because in their calculus the unborn are less equal. “Hairsplitting arguments about when a fetus becomes a person are meaningless,” Shea says. Each person has a right to live “the whole of human life for the whole of life.”
Over and over, Shea insists that a moral person cannot say that one issue must take priority over others. Concern over 20 or more issues does not dilute or fracture the brand. Yes, “there is plenty of room…for specialization and focusing on specific issues and ills.” But, to make one issue morally higher than another is to make some people in some situations more equal than others. A moral person cannot deliberately excuse evil.
There is obviously imperfection in the world-as-it-is. Yet the moral person retains a vision of a world as it is supposed to be and consistently strives to lessen evil and enhance good. At the same time, Shea concludes, one must refrain from becoming a justice warrior in the sense that they presume to create a perfect world. Such a person will likely be ineffective. Always “begin where you are, and not where you are not,” he advises. You are inside a family, inside a voluntary group, in a union, at a protest or rally. Then challenge yourself and others to move a step outside your comfort zone.
Shea is not the last word on social action, its history, its principles and its current applications. Most readers will quarrel with him on some pages; which is a sign of a good book. The Church’s Best Kept Secret is fresh, accessible and challenging.

Droel is the author of What Is Social Justice (National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).

CLN presents to seminarians at CUA Theological College

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This March, the Catholic Labor Network was invited to present on Catholic Social Teaching to the Social Justice Committee at the CUA Theological College. CLN Executive Director Clayton Sinyai reviewed the history of Catholic Social Teaching on labor and work, the historic impact of Catholic thought on American public policy, and the ABC’s of labor unions with the seminarians (pictured, with Fr. Martin Burnham).

The seminarians were intrigued to learn the role that Monsignor John Ryan played in the movement for minimum wage laws in the United States. Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical letter Rerum Novarum argued that every worker was entitled to a living wage, and that if the labor market failed to provide for this, society should intervene. Msgr. Ryan, the bishops’ first Social Action Director, popularized the principles in Rerum Novarum by promoting public policies consistent with them. These included minimum wage laws (first at the state and later at the federal level) and laws protecting the right of workers to organize (the Wagner Act of 1935).

The College draws seminarians from across the country, and the seminarians had a rich discussion, combining what they learned in their theology classes with the economic and historical data in the presentation. Seminarian Michael Marincel later observed,

To integrate what I have learned about Thomistic Natural Law with what you discussed with us in your talk, because all the material goods of the world (things) are ultimately intended to meet the needs of people, if some people’s needs are not being met, and other people have far more than they need, we need to find ways to assure that the material goods of the world (things) get to those who are in legitimate need. It seems that unionization is one of the best ways to do this, because it allows more equal wages to come out of a conversation between employers and employees that is conducive to management and labor learning to relate to one another as real people with legitimate needs rather than just another cog in the system.

Social Justice committee leader Jack Kristensen saw a practical application for the discussion.

The talk helped me be aware of how Catholic Social Teaching on labor and work applies to people who work in a parish: that they need a healthy salary and enough time to be with their families and for rest. Also, I will probably be more aware of the services I use as a future pastor, making sure they are from companies that treat their employees and the environment according to Catholic Social Teaching principles.

The Catholic Labor Network was pleased to engage these future priests and looks forward to similar discussions at other seminaries.

Senate Cafeteria Workers Deserve Living Wage, Health Care

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Will the Senate Act?

Last November, in a “card check” election validated by Fr. Martin Burnham, some 150 cooks, cashiers and utility workers in the Senate Cafeteria formed a union by joining UNITE HERE Local 23. Now these workers are fighting for a living wage and affordable health care – but will the Senate act to make it happen?

The workers in the Senate cafeteria serve Senators, their staff, and guests visiting the Capitol. They love their work, but many struggle to get by in the expensive Washington DC area. Many are paid the DC minimum wage or scarcely more, and premiums for the bare-bones health insurance are so costly that fewer than one in five workers participate in the employer-provided plan.

“I recently broke my hand and need hand surgery,” explained Anthony Thomas, a utility worker in the cafeteria kitchen. “But I don’t have health insurance because the company’s plan is expensive.”

The workers are employed by Restaurant Associates, the vendor that operates the Senate Cafeteria under contract with the Capitol building’s administration, known as “the Architect of the Capitol.” But their issue isn’t with the company – union research has established that the root problem is the contract itself. The cafeteria is no cash cow, and under terms of its current agreement Restaurant Associates simply can’t afford just wages. To fix this, the Senate needs to act.

The cafeteria workers have been rallying outside the Capitol, calling on the Architect of the Capitol to reissue the contract with terms that provide for just wages and benefits for workers. “At my current salary, I cannot afford the cost of everything going up this year—or even the cost of health insurance,” said cafeteria cook Ludwing Torres. “I want to stay in this job and earn enough to pay for gas, food, and rent in the DC area. We are waiting on the Senators to take action so we can afford to live a better, healthier life.”

The legislators ultimately run their own house. Recently a Catholic Labor Network delegation met with staff for Senator Amy Klobuchar, whose Rules and Administration Committee supervises the work of the Architect of the Capitol. We were told that the committee had directed Capitol staff to draw up alternatives for addressing the issue. That’s good news, but we aren’t there yet.

You can help. CLICK HERE to tell your Senator that the US Government should be a model employer, and that Senate Cafeteria workers deserve just wages and affordable health coverage.

Pope Francis continues this tradition of voicing strong support for organized labor

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Ingrid Delgado of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops was scheduled to participate in a recent panel at the AFL-CIO on the legacy of Monsignor Higgins, but contracted covid. However, she shared her prepared remarks with the Catholic Labor Network:

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here with you today. I am honored to join you at this event to honor Monsignor Higgins’ life and legacy. It is not lost on me that it is an incredible privilege for me to have the labor portfolio and be a small part of continuing his work at the USCCB.

The importance and effectiveness of unions personally touched my life through one of my closest friends, my son’s godmother, who is a teacher. I remember her going through a really difficult time with a situation that came up at work which caused her a great deal of anxiety and many sleepless nights. But I remember her calling me, feeling very thankful and relieved after a meeting during which her union rep accompanied her and advocated for her throughout a process that ultimately resulted in her favor. Because of her positive experience, I later joined the teachers’ union myself.

The Catholic Church has a long history of calling for workers’ rights and supporting union organizing. As many of you know, Catholic Social Teaching drives the Church’s advocacy efforts and, from its beginning, from its foundation, it has been rooted in workers’ rights. Catholics recognize Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum Novarum – or On the Condition of Labor – as the birth of Catholic Social Teaching, the first in a long and continuing series of papal documents on socio-economic problems. This letter to the Church throughout the world was published in 1891, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, and strongly reaffirmed the Church’s support of the right to organize and emphasized the need for a strong and effective labor movement. Since then and to this day, his successor popes have continued to echo this message.

Pope Francis continues this tradition of voicing strong support for organized labor. He called the right to unionize, “a fundamental right” when, in a message to the International Labour Organization last year, he said, “It is fundamental that the Church…support measures that correct unjust or incorrect situations that condition labour relations, completely subjugating them to the idea of ‘exclusion’, or violating the fundamental rights of workers.”

He compared trade unions to prophets when he stated that they are, “an expression of the prophetic profile of society.” He said, “Unions born and reborn every time that, like the biblical prophets, they give voice to those who do not have one, denouncing those who would ‘buy the poor … for a pair of sandals’ as the prophet (Amos) says, exposing the powerful who trample on the rights of the most vulnerable workers, defending the cause of foreigners, the least and the rejected.”

He said there is no good society without good unions.

And he wrote that, “people’s movements…are sowers of a new future, promoters of the change we need: to put the economy at the service of the people…”

But beyond continuing to reiterate the Catholic Church’s message of support for unionizing, Pope Francis has called Catholics to action. Just this past January, reflecting on Jesus and St. Joseph as carpenters, he said, “Today, we should ask ourselves what we can do to recover the value of work; and what contribution we can make, as the Church, so that work can be redeemed from the logic of mere profit and can be experienced as a fundamental right and duty of the person, which expresses and increases his or her dignity.”

Pope Francis regularly reminds us of the Church’s vision for a just economy that prioritizes people over profits. But, rather than speaking of it as an unattainable ideal, he has challenged us to reimagine how we can make it a reality. He has gone so far as to identify ideas from two economists, Mariana Mazzucato and Kate Raworth, as “prescient and relevant,” giving us hope that economies that work for all without leaving anyone at the periphery are no longer dismissible as idealistic or unrealistic.

Pope Francis also convoked young economists, entrepreneurs, and changemakers from around the world entrusting them to “change the current economy and give soul to the economy of tomorrow.” For two years, young professionals from the five continents have been gathering in small group dialogue as part of the Economy of Francesco – Francesco being St. Francis of Assisi, after whom Pope Francis chose his papal name. And when I say young, I mean young. I considered applying to join the culminating event in Assisi this upcoming September, and I am seriously too old. But what an exciting opportunity for the world to listen to the voices of young professionals, uplifted by the Pope, in their recommendations of how to genuinely and deeply reform the economic system.

For those of us who work at the USCCB, especially in the office of Domestic Social Development (or DSD), the Church’s support of organized labor is a significant part of our history. The National Catholic Welfare Conference, which was the USCCB’s predecessor, founded the Department on Social Action in 1919 as one of its original departments. While the name and scope changed a bit through time, it developed to what is now DSD. It is such a humble honor and privilege for us to continue Monsignor Higgins’ commitment to the rights of workers in today’s legislative context.

Our office takes the lead for the Conference on a long list of federal policy issues, including labor policy, before the three branches of government. Before the US Supreme Court, we filed an amicus brief in the Janus case in 2018. Before the legislative branch, the bishops are currently strong supporters of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. During infrastructure negotiations last year, the Conference called for long term job creation with a focus on adequate pay and decent working conditions, including a right to organize and resources for job training and apprenticeship programs. We encouraged members to avoid rewarding companies that engage in anti-competitive behavior and, instead, to favor various forms of employee ownership and profit sharing. We called attention to proposals such as quality and affordable childcare options, paid sick leave, and parental leave as ways to support working families.

While dignity of work might seem like only one of many issues our office monitors, there is great synthesis among all of our priorities. For example, our advocacy in favor of accessible and affordable housing and healthcare, including mental health care, greatly impacts workers. We also actively advocate in favor of strengthening child nutrition programs, consumer protection, reentry programs, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit.

As our office takes the lead on behalf of the bishops to advocate at the federal level, State Catholic Conferences take the lead on state policy. Up until last summer, I had the privilege of working for the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops where we were very active on state legislation regarding wage theft, immigrant justice, predatory lending, human trafficking, and farmworker conditions.

The USCCB also supports the labor movement through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development which helps fund organizations advancing community building, organizing, and worker owned cooperatives. Additionally, Catholic Charities partners with unions for job placement, job training, and have collaborated with them for food distribution efforts during COVID.

The Catholic Church and the Catholic Bishops continue to be firmly committed to workers’ rights. It has now been over 130 years since Pope Leo XIII penned the open letter to the Church that cemented the Church’s alliance with the worker movement. And as long as there continue to be economic and labor injustices, the Church and those of us who work for her will continue to walk in Monsignor Higgins’ example, supporting organized labor and working towards a just economy. We look forward to continuing to do that alongside all of you. Thank you.