Voices
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.
In All Things
Last week by a vote of 238 to 186 the US House voted to strip the National Labor Relations Board of one of its powers ndash the power to stop companies from transferring work to punish workers who organize a union or strike their employer nbsp HR 2587 known to sponsors as the lsquo Protecti
In All Things
The USCCB Labor Day statement as usual makes for excellent reading and reflection on this holiday ndash even in the absence of the keen analysis of Monsignor Higgins Rightly the primary focus of ldquo Human Costs and Moral Challenges of a Broken Economy rdquo is on the workers whose lives ha
In All Things
45 000 Verizon employees have now returned to work following a two-week strike but it seems the dispute is just beginning The two sides agreed to resume negotiations but there are few signs of goodwill between them Verizon is the principal phone service provider in the Northeastern United States
In All Things
Benedict XVI nbsp devoted much of his encyclical Caritas in Veritate to issues of globalization including the observation that ldquo the global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered
In All Things
In a tentative settlement with the multiple labor unions representing GE workers General Electric has nbsp closed its pension to new hires The news comes just after the United Mineworkers and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association just reached a settlement with the same condition According to
In All Things
House Speaker John Boehner rsquo s much-anticipated CUA Commencement address was the scene of yet another protest against the impact of House-inspired budget cuts on the poor According to the Washington Post about 30 graduate students engaged in a silent protest at the ceremony ndash wearing sig
In All Things
April 28 is commemorated worldwide as Workers Memorial Day ndash a day to remember all those who have died of occupational injuries while working to provide the goods and services we enjoy As in past years leaders of American labor unions marked the occasion with a ceremony in remembrance of tho
In All Things
The other day food service workers at the nation rsquo s oldest Catholic University announced that after a lengthy campaign their union UNITEHERE had been recognized by their employer The whole story has been retold elsewhere ndash but for those familiar with union organizing the relative civi
Television
“People forget the Triangle fire at their peril,” observes one labor historian.
In All Things
As Wisconsin legislators debated a proposal to strip Wisconsin rsquo s state workers of their collective bargaining rights ndash a proposal that drew an intervention from the Wisconsin Catholic Conference reminding them that long-established Church teaching defends the right of workers to organiz