Labor, Faith And Religion

There are times when the conversaion between the labor movement and people of faith is strong and vibrant and times when it is less so, but there is always a conversation on faith and labor taking place. This is not, or should not be, solely a conversation between institutions. Union members are people of varied faiths and within our rank-and-file we have many strong believers, priests and pastors, rabbis, imams, and other faith leaders. We all have much to talk about. One of our challenges is in mapping out how faith and work connect and don't connect and how they connect and don't connect to unionization.

A few examples of how faith and the labor movement connect come quickly to my mind. The United Mine Workers of America has a tradition of preachers in the mines and is today gifted to have Father Rodney Torbic, a Serbian Orthodox priest and honorary member of Local #1980, at the forefront of many of the union's efforts in Southwestern Pennsylvania. We often mention the Catholic Labor Network on this blog. Portland Jobs with Justice has a Faith and Labor Working Committee. Our labor history is filled with people of faith, within and alongside of the labor movement, supporting a common agenda and goals and coming to this from different faith traditions.

I'm including in this post a report from The Valley Labor Report and a sermon from Brad Davis, a Methodist pastor in Southern West Virginia. The basics on the AFL-CIO Labor in the Pulpit program referred to in the great Valley Labor Report Program can be found here.

Pastor Davis wrote: On Labor Day 2021 I had the honor of hosting the official Blair Centennial church service, "The People's Church" at the Coalfield Jamboree Theater in downtown Logan, WV with a group of fantastic individuals...the following is the sermon preached that day, titled "Almost Heaven" based on Isaiah 61...

He wasn’t scheduled to speak on the night
Of April 3, 1968…but the people gathered
At Memphis’ Bishop Charles Mason Temple cried out
for their brother Moses to come lead them
cross the mountain to the Promised Land.

Ya see these striking
sanitation workers are a crucified people
a people stripped of their dignity…

a people whose humanity has been extracted
a hollowed out people put
on a cross of economic exploitation and shame

Hung out to dry and left for dead

A people whose backs are against the wall
A people that goes on the picket line
With signs hung round their bodies
declaring “I am a man”

Our lives matter to God
And so they cry out
for their brother Moses,
The one that’s gonna lead
them cross the Mountain
the prophet of the God who will renew their humanness,
affirm their somebodyness
The one come to take them off the cross of shame…

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Hears their cries…
Drags himself out of his room
At the Lorraine Motel and
Prophetically speaks…

“we’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he says
But it really doesn’t matter with me now,
Because I’ve been to the mountaintop…
I’ve seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight,
That we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”

He was right…he didn’t get there
We all know what happened on April 4

Ya see when you dare stand in solidarity
With a crucified people…….

You get yourself crucified
When you dare to stand in solidarity
With those in the low places,
You get lifted up on a cross
By those in the high places of power

When you dare to actualize
The prophet Isaiah’s vision of life how God intends
And give good news to the oppressed
Well that’s bad news for the oppressors

When you dare to set
The enslaved free….
You get the attention of the enslavers

Just ask Sid Hatfield…..

Or better yet ask Jesus
The new brother Moses, God as one of us
Who hears the cries of the people

Who has the audacity
To go up on the Mountaintop
And peer into the Promised Land

To recast Isaiah’s vision

Preach good news to a crucified, colonized people

Bring liberation to those stripped, exploited, shamed,
extracted, hollowed out by the imperial company

Proclaim the Lord’s favor to those put on cross
by the Roman Baldwin-Felts precinct

To comfort those hung out to dry and left for dead

To declare God loves justice,
And hates those that rob folks of it

Talkin bout a grand reversal
Where the first are last and the last are first…

Talkin bout a new day…the Promised Land

Yeah he saw it….

But even God in the flesh eventually gets
Crucified by the imperial company, the imperial company church,
And their gun thugs before he can make it there

But I got some good news
To share with ya’ll today…

Three days later…
There’s a holy Up-rising

And therein lies the power of the cross,
the power of the crucified God of the oppressed

Suffering and death don’t have the last word
God has a knack for flipping defeat into victory

For turning mourning into gladness,
Grief into praise…sorrow into everlasting joy

Death into life….The Promised Land…
the New Creation, Life as God intends….justice

100 years ago our ancestors
Had the audacity to stand in solidarity
With their crucified sisters and brothers…….

A people stripped of dignity and shamed,
Their humanity extracted, discredited as backward
Discarded by society
Dispossessed of their land
disinherited by their leaders

Our ancestors had the audacity
To march up to that Mountaintop
10 miles up the road from here

And Catch a glimpse of Justice….of freedom
and almost made it to heaven

But they too, like Dr. King,
Like Sid Hatfield, like Jesus,
Get themselves put on a cross

And for a century we been
Tryin to make it to the Promised Land

We’re still tryin to get over the mountain

But a hundred years later ya’ll…
God still hears the cries of the people

St. Oscar Romero once said
“As a Christian I don’t believe
In death without a resurrection.
If they kill me, I will be
Resurrected in the people”

You can kill a human being,
But you can’t kill a movement

You can hang a person on a cross,
But you can’t crucify God’s vision for humanity

100 years later ya’ll… the holy Up-rising is here
Today we’re takin our crucified people
Off the cross of economic exploitation and shame

Today The spirit of our ancestors is resurrected in us
Brother Moses has come to bring us cross the Mountain
And we are him

We who sit in darkness
Have seen a great light

Today the Holy Spirit done got hold of us

Today our people are born again

Today God’s Spirit is takin us by the hand
leadin us out of the drift mouth Into the dawn of a new day…

A new day where our labor isn’t exploited
at the expense of our humanity

A new day that values our personhood over profit margin

A new day where God’s reclamation project
Restores our dignity and our humanity

A new day that fills the hollowed out, empty spaces
Of our people and our hills with more than enough

A new day when our somebodyness is recognized,
And our land is restored and returned

A new day when we are recognized as a
human being made in God’s image,
that we’re worth more than the industry’s bottom line

A new day when we don’t
Have to worry about our water
Being contaminated

A new day when black lung is no more

A new day when company pensions
don’t have to be fought for

A new day when miners aren’t forced
To block railroad tracks to get their paychecks

A new day when the ruins
Of our communities are rebuilt,
The economic and environmental
Devastation of the Coalfields repaired
The generational trauma caused
By over a century of corporate colonization
And industrial enslavement is healed

100 years later we stand on the mountaintop…
Peering over at the other side and emphatically declare
Aint’ no stopping us now cause ain’t no stopping God

A holy Up-rising in the coalfields has come.

Rebirth is here..

We shall not be moved.

Ain’t nothin or nobody gonna turn us around

We goin to the Promised Land ya’ll

Montani. Semper. Liberi. Amen.

Eugene Debs---Labor Day, 1904

Eugene Debs penned this message in 1904. The message speaks of many past labor struggles that built our modern labor movement and that still deserve study and attention so that we may place ourselves in our working-class lineage and build on the past and make a brighter future. 

Taken from The Indy Star

The workingman is the only man in whose presence I take off my hat. As I salute him, I honor myself.

The workingman—and this is the day to write him in capital letters—has given me what I have, made me what I am, and will make me what I hope to be; and I thank him for all, and above all for giving me eyes to see, a heart to feel and a voice to speak for the workingman.

Like the rough hewn stone from which the noble statue is chiseled by the hand of man, the Toiler is the rough—hewn bulk from which the perfect Man is being chiseled by the hand of God.

All the workingmen of the earth are necessary to the whole Workingman—and he alone will survive of all the human race.

Labor Day is a good day to rest the hands and give the brain a chance—to think about what has been, and is, and is yet to be.

The way has been long and weary and full of pain, and many have fallen by the wayside, but the Unconquerable Army of Labor is still on the march and as it rests on its arms today and casts a look ahead, it beholds upon the horizon the first glowing rays of the Social Sunrise.

Courage, comrades! The struggle must be won, for Peace will only come when she comes hand in hand with Freedom.

The right is with the labor movement and the gods of battle are with the Working Class.

The Socialist Party and the Trade Union Movement must be one today in celebration of Labor Day and pledge each other their mutual fidelity and support in every battle, economic and political, until the field is won and the Workingman is free. Forget not the past on Labor Day! Think of Homestead! Think of Latimer! Think of Buffalo! Think of Coeur d’Alene! Think of Croton Dam! Think of Chicago! Think of Virden! Think of Pana! Think of Leadville! Think of Cripple Creek! Think of Victor! Think of Telluride!

These are some of the bloody battles fought in the past in the war of the Workers for Industrial Freedom and Social Justice.

How many and how fierce and bloody shall be the battles of the future?

Comrades, this is the day for Workingmen to think of the Class Struggle and the Ballot—the day for Labor to clasp the hand of Labor and girdle the globe with the International Revolutionary Solidarity of the Working Class.

We are all one—all workers of all lands and climes. We know not color, nor creed, nor sex in the Labor Movement. We know only that our hearts throb with the same proletarian stroke, that we are keeping step with our class in the march to the goal and that the solidarity of Labor will vanquish slavery and Humanize the World.

On Labor Day, We Are Not Going Back!

 

A message from Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr.

September 2, 2024

In the labor movement, we honor and learn from our past and fight for our future.

Today, 17,000 CWA members who work at AT&T Southeast are in a fight. They are on strike because AT&T is not bargaining in good faith. When CWA’s Executive Board authorized this strike, we knew that our members would remain strong, and they have. They are standing strong on the picket line because they know that prior generations of CWA members fought for what we have today. They have our union’s full support, including financial support from our Members’ Relief Fund.

Our union started as a movement of telephone workers who joined together to improve working conditions. Those workers struggled to build a union, and AT&T, the primary employer at the time, promoted company-controlled fake unions to successfully destroy the independent union movement in the industry.

It was not until 1935, when Congress passed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that communications workers had the freedom to establish lasting unions. The NLRA prohibited unfair labor practices - like establishing company unions - and protected collective action by workers to improve their working conditions. It also established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to enforce the NLRA.

Last month, as our members at AT&T Southeast were preparing to go on strike, Donald Trump laughed with notorious union buster Elon Musk about firing striking workers. Today that would be illegal, but if he’s elected President, Trump will have the plan and the power to take us back to a time when it wasn’t.

Donald Trump’s allies, including many people he appointed to serve in his administration, want to take us back to the days before the NLRA. Their dangerous, extremist agenda, detailed in a handbook known as Project 2025, calls for increasing corporate control over workers. They want to appoint NLRB members who will stop enforcing large parts of the NLRA, including the ban on company unions.

We are not going back.

We are not going back because we have the opportunity to elect Kamala Harris, a true champion for working people, who has a vision for the future where we all have more control over our own lives, not less. Where we have the freedom to join unions and to spend time caring for our families. Where healthcare and prescription drugs are affordable and our retirement plans are secure.

As Vice President, Kamala Harris has welcomed CWA members and retirees to be part of the discussion about policies that affect our lives. As a Senator, she was an original co-sponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. As Attorney General for the State of California, she fought wage theft, forced unscrupulous big banks to restore millions to pension funds, and won over $230 million from pharmaceutical companies that were misleading patients.

By casting our votes for Senators and Members of Congress who will stand with us, we are declaring that we will not go back. We will elect representatives who will work to pass legislation that expands benefits that our seniors have earned, not strip away those benefits when they’re needed most. We deserve leaders who fight to solve problems instead of fighting one another.

Each of us can, and must, vote. But that, in itself, is not enough. We must also encourage others to learn about what is at stake and who is on their side. We must have conversations at work, make phone calls, send text messages, and knock on doors, spreading the word and making sure every union member’s voice is heard on election day.

This Labor Day, I am asking you to commit to, as Vice Presidential candidate and coach Tim Walz would say, “leave it all on the field.” Support our striking workers by visiting a picket line, signing our petition, or contributing to their strike fund. Work together with other CWA members and retirees by filling out the form at cwa.org/political to let us know that you want to volunteer to elect candidates who will move our country forward, not backward.

Let’s honor our past by fighting together for a more just future.

And see you soon on the picket line!

Some Things To Feel Good About!

The Northwest Labor Press has reported that  "Just hours before a strike was to begin, Oregon AFSCME reached tentative agreement with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) on a first contract for a unit of about 250 postdoctoral researchers."

Photo from The Northwest Labor Press

The STAND has carried reports that "Mount Vernon paraeducators, district reach tentative agreement after 2-day strike – A spokesperson for the paraeducators’ union, Public School Employees of Washington SEIU Local 1948, confirmed Thursday that the parties reached a deal. The agreement includes a 5.2% raise for all paraeducators this year, along with other perks" and that "UAW and Cornell reach tentative contract agreement, strike could end next week – The union said it was able to reach a deal on over 40 demands with Cornell leadership, including an average wage increase of 21% to 25.4% over the life of the four-year tentative agreement. Workers in positions with the lowest pay grades in the bargaining unit will receive significant pay raises in the first and second year of the contract, according to the UAW. The union said workers will remain on strike until a contract is ratified. The soonest Cornell employees could return to work is Sept. 3." The reports came from KING 5 and The Ithaca Voice.

Photo from The STAND and The City/Alex Krales.

The Stand has also carried reports that '"More Workers Are Filing For — and Winning – Union Elections Than in Any Year in the Past Decade – Workers are petitioning for more elections for union representation — and winning more of them – than any other year in a decade, with more than 75% of all private-sector organizing attempts from mid-2023 to mid-2024 resulting in union victories. Nationally, the growth in election petitions with the federal National Labor Relations Board reversed a decade of decline, according to the report, reaching “a level not seen since 2015,”' and the current win rates “outpace any since 2005.”' This report came from The City.

Firefighters’ Union Members wore “Trump is a Scab” shirts to 

welcome JD Vance to their union convention.

HuffPost is reporting that the Democratic National Committee has done "its first paid media buy at the unofficial start of the fall campaign season" with billboard ads calling Trump an  "Anti-Union Scab." HuffPort columnist Jonathan Nicholson says that the ads will run in "Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania on Monday as its first paid media buy to kick the season off" and that the ads will be in "English and Spanish, will show an unflattering picture of Trump’s face next to the caption “Trump’s an anti-union scab!” and will appear in a mix of high-traffic and other locations in those swing states."

Jane McAlevey on Democracy Now!---One of her last interviews

Kelsey Waldon - "They'll Never Keep Us Down" (Hazel Dickens Cover)

Sweet Honey in the Rock - Sojourner's Battle Hymn

Some Upcoming Union Member Trainings & Labor Solidarity Events And Needs

From Portland DSA:

Fighting the Wrongs of Management Rights (Labor Notes Stewards Workshop)
Tues. Sept. 10, 4:30-6pm
(This workshop has limited capacity and is for stewards and elected officers who work with stewards - not staff)
"Management rights" clauses have found their way into almost all union contracts. Learn why these clauses are so dangerous and, more importantly, how to make sure workers have a voice no matter what the "management's rights" clause says.
RSVP https://labornotes.org/events/2024/stewards-workshop-fighting-wrongs-management-rights

 

Ready to Strike -- Boeing (IAM 63)
Safety First !
Fri. Sept. 13, times TBA
Boeing Plant, 19000 NE Sandy
Sign this petition to let Boeing know: the community stands with the workers!

 

Labor Door Knocks for Our City Council Candidates (PDX DSA)
Final Stretch for Tiffany Koyama Lane (Dist. 3) and Mitch Green (Dist. 4)
Let's Power Our Working-Class Champions to Victory!
Sun. Sept. 15 (Mitch), Sat. Sept. 28 (Tiffany), Sat. Oct. 12 (Tiffany), Sun. Oct. 20 (MItch), Sat. Oct. 26 (Tiffany), Sat-Sun Nov. 2,3 (both)
REGISTER: https://tinyurl.com/dsaLaborDoors


Democratic Rights for Union Members (an on-line Labor Notes workshop)
Wed. Sept. 18, 4:30-6pm
The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act provides union members a bill of rights, requires unions to publicly disclose certain details about their governance, and regulates union elections and trusteeships of local unions by international unions. Learn how to use the law to build rank-and-file power in your union, and how to defend that power once you’ve built it! REGISTER: https://labornotes.org/events/2024/democratic-rights-union-members

 

Postal Protest - We Won't Be Silenced! (APWU, NALC)
Public Right to Comment at Postal Board of Governors Meetings
Better Staffing, Better Service, Good Contract Now!
Tues. Oct. 1, Noon-1pm
East Portland Post Office, 1020 SE 7th Ave
Sponsor: American Postal Workers Union local 128
Endorsed by: Communities and Postal Workers United,
National Association of Letter Carriers branch 82
RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/rally-for-postal-heritage-day-save-our-service-save-our-jobs/

 

Reed College Residential Advisors (OPEIU 11)

READY TO STRIKE for Fair Pay, Job Security, End Patrols 

ADD YOUR NAME: Tell Reed administrators that housing advisors deserve to work for more than room and food, but FAIR COMPENSATION too! Please follow the union at https://linktr.ee/URCHA

 

 

Divest Oregon from Israel Bonds! (PDX DSA)
Sign-on Letter - Bring this to Your Union !
Oregon Investment Council invests union pension funds in Israel bonds, Caterpiller, and Bank of America that fuel the genocide in Gaza.
SIGN ON (unions, organizations, individuals) https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-oregon-treasury-comply-with-international-law-and-divest-from-genocide

 

Starbucks Workers United Rapid Response Network (SBWU)
Baristas will be bargaining a national foundational framework, an agreement that sets the standards for SBWU contracts across the country. The 10,000+ unionized Starbucks partners have come a long way to get to this moment – and we're determined to keep the momentum strong and fight to win at the bargaining table. By joining the rapid response network, you'll be on standby to mobilize quickly when called upon - this could look like calling into a store, holding a flyering event outside a store, organizing a solidarity standout, lodging customer complaints, etc. If your support is needed, it will likely be a tight turnaround time - so the form asks some specific questions to help gauge what level of capacity you and your organization may have for rapid response organizing. SIGN UP: https://tinyurl.com/SBWUrapid

Want to organize (a union) at your workplace?DSA & UE sponsor the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
We will walk you through the first steps.
REGISTER https://workerorganizing.org

PSU Professors Open Bargaining Thursdays, Sept. 5 & 19; 8:30-4:30pm

From Portland DSA: 

PSU Professors Open Bargaining (AAUP-PSU)

They Say Cutback, We Say Fightback!
Thursdays, Sept. 5 & 19; 8:30-4:30pm
RMNC, 1600 SW 4th Ave, 316 (Mt. Rainier room)
The PSU administration is demanding a $3.5M reduction in wages while preparing to spend $284M in bonds and private philanthropy in new construction.
Show up in union gear, with signs: RSVP Here!

A union announcement reads as follows:

PSU & AAUP Bargaining - September 5

Thursday, September 5

8:30am-4:30pm

RMNC 316 (Mt. Rainier room)

You can RSVP for this and future In Person Bargaining HERE

Please view the Code of Conduct for Bargaining Observers here

Webinar info for online viewers:Online Zoom invites will be emailed to members ahead of the bargaining date! Zoom links are different for each session.

PCUN requests solidarity to restore the Climate Protection Program (CPP)!

From PCUN:

We need your help to restore the Climate Protection Program (CPP)! The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has announced extending the public comment period. If you haven’t yet had a chance to submit comments in support of the CPP, NOW IS THE TIME!

Your voice is crucial in this fight for a sustainable future. We cannot let the oil and gas industry determine OUR FUTURE! Make sure your voice is heard! Click here to submit a public comment now!

If you prefer to email your comments to DEQ, you can do so HERE!

Click HERE for a few email templates you can utilize as you submit your comments. The public comment period is open through Sept 27.

Our kids deserve a future clear from toxins and pollutants in the air they breathe and the water they drink.
¡Si se puede!

Railroad Workers United Labor Day Greetings 2024

We don't always agree with Railroad Workers United, but their Labor Day message below is a good introduction to their organization and way of thinking and to union solidarity in practice. There are plenty of good links in this post that will be of interest to our readers.

 

Whether you are off work or on the job, please take time to honor, remember and celebrate the rights and dignity of all workers this Labor Day — our day.

Bosses have never freely guaranteed overtime pay, vacations, paid holidays, sick leave, workers’ compensation, FELA, Social Security, retirement benefits, safe working conditions, the basic 8-hour day, or seniority systems. These only came about because workers organized and fought (some losing their lives) collectively for these things — and at every turn, management would dial them back if it weren't for our vigilance.

RWU solidarity member Peter Rachleff, a Macalester College Professor and co-founder of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, Minnesota reminds us of Labor Day's origins and its deep historical connections to the railroad worker story in his 2022 piece in the Union Advocate.

***

While we celebrate today, we must remember that workers rights are not simply a historical struggle, but an ever-present and ongoing one, and RWU's fight for working railroaders persists across a range of issues and organizing campaigns. To highlight just a few:

Coordinated Bargaining

As we continue to push for rail labor to present a united front against the carriers in the upcoming negotiations with the Class 1 carriers represented by the NCCC,

we do so knowing that none of the issues we faced in 2022 have been resolved. The raises have been wiped out by inflation and increased cost of living. Fatalities and injuries are up. Manpower levels are nowhere near where they were even just a few years ago. The companies continue to push through cuts wherever they can to prop up profits for their shareholders. If we are going to have a chance of reversing the decline, we need to draw a line in the sand and fight back. None of our individual unions or crafts are strong enough on their own, and if we bargain divided, it will allow the companies to pit one union against the other.

We are mobilizing rank-and-file, working railroaders to explain in their own words why these negotiations are so crucial, and why a coordinated bargaining coalition is key.

Public Rail Now

What began as one-off recurring discussions over the years about the anti-worker structure of the rail industry, and later became a resolution RWU adopted in 2022, has grown into a thriving, cross-partner, grant-funded Public Rail Now campaign, supported by a full-time organizer and part-time assistant organizer. Railroads' current profit-driven, billionaire class operations fail to serve the majority, jeopardize safety, and ignore the well-being of workers and communities, as demonstrated by devastating derailments like the one in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023.

Read our recent white paper published in July 2024, written by RWU/Public Rail Now researcher and RWU Solidarity member, Maddock Thomas, "Putting America Back on Track: The Case for a 21st Century Public Rail System," and join the campaign.

Supporting Working Railroaders Running for Rail Union Office

While RWU does not directly endorse candidates for rail union office, we strive to support rank n' file railroaders who do run, by sharing our perspective on what makes a truly pro-worker campaign. We recently shared our "12-Point Platform for Candidates to Consider When Running for Union Office," and encourage candidates to use it as a tool for foregrounding the working rail voice.

***

Labor Day is about all working people and our historic and gallant struggle – through strikes, boycotts, picket lines, sit-ins, occupations, and more – to further the cause of the working class. We have so much to make us hopeful, considering the ongoing wave of national organizing. Railroad Workers United is proud to be part of this great tradition of working people fighting back against the wealthy and powerful, the big corporations, and the Wall Street bankers. We invite you to join in the fight.

Solidarity Forever!

Nick Wurst
General Secretary
secretary@railroadworkersunited.org

Matt Weaver
RWU Organizer
organizer@railroadworkersunited.org

Labor's Bookstore is having a sale---And we have some thoughts on labor education

Labor's Bookstore does a pretty good job when it comes to providing the books and Zoom trtainings that union stewards and local union leaders need to do their jobs effectively. We have featured their products and trainings on this blog in the past.

There is something painfully frustrating in hearing local union leaders and stewards complain that they're lost or getting buried in their work or feeling cut off from their union or union resources. "No one listens!" and "No one helps!" and "No one comes to meetings!" and "I don't know what I'm doing!" are common complaints. Often these complaints are less about not having help and resources and are more about cries for help. We're dropping the ball somewhere, the steward or local union leader is frustrated or disappointed and doesn't want to do the work alone, the union needs a functioning representative in the workplace and the member-leader is caught between feeling responsible to their coworkers and the union and feeling as if they're failing. Neither the union nor the member-leader speaks a language of solidarity, struggle, and power-building. A smart HR person has their ear to the ground and picks off the member-leader and the union takes a hit.

If giving someone a book or sending them off to a training solved the problems at hand we would have almost no problems. Most unions have good training resources, though these may be buried in a closet or in the trunk of a staffperson's car. We're less good about supporting our people who hold positions in locals and who do the daily work in the workplaces, even if that work is most often about showing up with the right attitude and being willing and able to listen. Our failed relationship with labor education and supporting or mermber-leaders is systemic, and this makes us vulnerable.  

By all means, give folks books and send them to trainings and use Labor's Bookstore as a primary resource. Local union leaders can take this on themselves if that's necessary. But we set ourselves up for failure if this is our idea of education or self-education. A better movement would develop a curriculum, have regular check-ins with local leaders and activists, teach people how to develop their own learning in cooperation with one another, give people the means and the resp[onsibilities of learning in groups, and put activists in direct contact with one another and back this up with resources. We often pass by existing leaders or potential leaders in worksites in a rush to get immediate tasks done, and we do so without giving enough thought to who and what leaders are and the existing models of leadership that people are familiar with and can work with. We need to be patient and deliberative in all that we do.

Empower your mind this Labor Day with educational books that celebrate the history and strength of organized labor. Knowledge is our tool, solidarity our foundation!

Visit our website to view our collection. Enter code LABOR2024 at checkout and receive a 20% discount on your entire order! Sale ends 9/3/2023 @ noon!

Gaudium et Spes: More than 600 Catholic Institutions with Labor Unions

One of the interestig annual reports on labor that I get comes from the Catholic Labor Network and lists those Roman Catholic institutions that are unionized by state. Oregon has a good number, but of course we will all benefit with more. Here is the introduction to the report and the relevant link from the Network.  

Gaudium et Spes: More than 600 Catholic Institutions with Labor Unions Happy Labor Day! During the year periodically we have to devote our newsletter to Catholic institutions engaged in union-busting behavior out of line with Catholic Social Teaching from Rerum Novarum to today. Happily these employers are not the last word. The Catholic Labor Network has identified more than 600 Catholic institutions that instead demonstrate Catholic Social Teaching by bargaining with unions representing some or most of their employees. In accordance with our tradition, each Labor Day the CLN offers its Gaudium et Spes report listing these institutions by State and Diocese. New entries this year include Catholic Cemetery workers in Youngstown OH who organized with the Machinists; nurses at Ascension St Agnes in Baltimore MD who joined National Nurses United; and Non-Tenure Track Faculty at two California Catholic Universities, University of San Diego and Loyola Marymount, who joined the SEIU. Most of these workers are still negotiating a first contract so please keep them in your prayers! Unfortunately, the list of unionized Catholic schools has shrunk a bit as organized schools in some urban cores closed. To find out what’s up in your state, check out the report: Gaudium et Spes 2024 If you know of additional Catholic employers with collective bargaining please report them to clayton@catholiclabor.org

Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure

Workers at the Guitar Center New York flagship store celebrate their new

 contract. Photo from RWDSU.

Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure

Retail Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) members at six Guitar Center locations recently ratified a new three-year agreement! The new contract is chock full of worker wins! The deal includes an increased minimum wage rate for every position, which continues to go up every year of the agreement. Tenured employees received an additional seniority wage adjustment. The contract also maintains the union health plan, with the addition of a short-term disability benefit.

Other highlights include an updated attendance policy that changes the grace period for lateness from 5 minutes to 15 minutes and the ability to call additional labor-management meetings during the year. The deal also gives current workers a leg up on moving positions within Guitar Center; going forward, when new part-time and full-time positions become available in the bargaining unit, the manager will be required to share the listing with current workers five days ahead of advertising the job to the public.

Importantly for sales associates and repair technicians, the contract maintains the current commission structure – unlike the non-union Guitar Center stores, where commission payouts have been slashed across the company. That’s the union difference!

Congratulations to all the Guitar Center workers for sticking together for a fair deal! You can visit unionized employees at the Guitar Center stores in Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Danvers, MA; Las Vegas, NV; New York, NY; and Queens, NY.

Note: The post above comes from RWDSU. We have several Guitar Center stores ion our region, including one in Keizer, one in Beaverton, one in Clackamas, and one in North Portland. RWDSU is also organizing workers at REI.

Will You Be Traveling Through The Ronald Reagen Washington National Airport Next Week? Please Read This.

Food service workers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport are asking their employer, Master ConcessionAir, for a fair process to decide whether to form a union. Workers will be holding an informational picket at the airport Monday and Tuesday next week!

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