Pope Francis like his namesake has attracted considerable attention and admiration for his modest lifestyle – and not only from the usual suspects The Holy Father quot runs an organization as big as any American corporation Yet he doesn rsquo t demand millions in pay and perks quot explained
Clayton Sinyai
Clayton Sinyai is a trade union activist and the author of Schools of Democracy: A Political History of the American Labor Movement (Cornell, 2006). He is a member of the Catholic Labor Network, the American affiliate of the World Movement of Christian Workers. He can be reached at clayton@catholiclabor.org.
Posted inIn All Things
Labor Movement to Rs: Let’s Talk – About Workers’ Rights
As I discussed yesterday the AFL-CIO rsquo s Constitutional Convention in LA this week began with a lot of buzz about proposals that progressive groups that were not labor organizations might be invited to affiliate with the AFL-CIO nbsp A number of union leaders expressed both practical and prin
Posted inIn All Things
AFL = American Federation of Liberal Organizations?
Along with the outreach to alt-labor groups I discussed yesterday the AFL-CIO Convention delegates have been weighing ways to form tighter associations with progressive groups like the NAACP La Raza the Sierra Club the National Organization of Women and others In politics these organizations
Posted inIn All Things
The AFL-CIO and “Alt-Labor”
This week witnesses thousands of trade unionists and labor activists assembling in Los Angeles for the 27th Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO nbsp With union membership continuing to decline the federation has been seeking new approaches to advocate for American workers nbsp The labor mov
Posted inFrom Our Archives
Fast Food Workers Call Us To Repentance
The fast food workers who walked off the job today to call for fair wages have very few cards in their hand They don rsquo t have strong established unions in place to represent them They don rsquo t have scarce job skills that make it difficult to replace them nbsp They don rsquo t occupy str
Posted inIn All Things
Compromise on the Labor Board: a Glimmer of Hope for a Broken Political Process?
nbsp National Labor Relations Board NLRB vacancies were not the only appointments addressed in the recent Senate compromise on the filibuster but they were closely watched by business and labor alike The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for protecting the rights of workers who want to for
Posted inIn All Things
Bishop Blaire to testify shortly on Minimum Wage
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act signed in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt as the last major piece of New Deal legislation The Fair Labor Standards Act established the federal minimum wage and required premium pay for overtime work The minimum wage concept bega
Posted inIn All Things
Adjunct faculty at Georgetown vote for union membership
Georgetown adjunct faculty recently made news, voting to join SEIU Local 500, the labor union that already represents adjunct faculty at George Washington University and American University.
Posted inFrom Our Archives
A Conservative in Veritate
For centuries the Church has taught that our property rights are not absolute but carry with them social obligations to all of mankind. In the modern age the Church has repeatedly instructed the faithful of the need to regulate market transactions in the service of the common good, and of the importance of intermediate associations like labor organizations in securing justice for working people…