Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Tag: Labor

You are Here :
Perspective,

Messing with the economy, and people’s lives

From the National Employment Law Project: More Americans Cut Off as Congress Sacrifices Jobless Aid and Economic Stimulus in Jobs Bill

Since last December, Congress has made a series of ill-advised and deeply flawed choices handling the jobs crisis, the National Employment Law Project said today. On two occasions this week alone, Congress failed to move a jobs bill critical to the economic recovery and the millions of Americans out of work.

—In the last three weeks, Congress has let over 900,000 workers run out of jobless benefits, jeopardized health care for hundreds of thousands relying on the COBRA subsidy, and is now allowing a crucial $25 per week federal supplement to unemployment checks to phase out. The mantra of many is about cutting spending; well they have cut spending —“ the spending of the unemployed,— said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project.

—Lawmakers have a choice between investing in job growth or giving into platitudes about deficits that cut stimulus designed to keep the economy moving in the right direction. Sadly, platitudes and election year posturing are winning. Congress is throwing a wrench in the recovery as it chips away at the safety net and yet preserves and attempts to strengthen loopholes for the wealthy. The choices Congress is making are outrageous and unacceptable,— Owens said.

A summary of recent delays and cuts in H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, includes:

  1. Benefits Expiration. The window to renew jobless benefits expired at the end of May —“ the fourth time this year Congress has failed to meet an extension deadline and left jobless workers and state agencies dangling. As a result, since the beginning of June, over 900,000 workers have run out of jobless benefits, and by next week that number will hit 1.2 million. Additionally, as a result of the lapsed extension deadline, thousands of workers collecting unemployment checks under the 13-20 week Extended Benefits program are being cut off in the middle of their claims, unable to finish out their current tier of benefits.
  2. COBRA Elimination. More than 2 million workers have benefited from the 65% subsidy to continue health care through COBRA —“ but the House has chosen to eliminate it and many in the Senate are threatening to follow suit. NELP estimates that 144,000 individuals per month will lose out on the subsidy due to the discontinuation. For these workers, health coverage will be nearly impossible to afford and as each month passes, more unemployed people will become uninsured.
  3. $25/Week Cut in Unemployment Checks. The Senate’s proposal to phase out the Federal Additional Compensation (FAC) passed under last year’s stimulus package will reduce unemployment benefits by roughly $100 per month and effectively remove $6 billion in crucial stimulus to communities throughout the country. Ending this stimulus could result in thousands of job losses before the year’s end, and in many Southern states in particular, where jobless benefits are extremely low, it means over a 10% cut in benefit checks for the unemployed. This week NELP issued a state-by-state summary of what the $25 per week means for the unemployed, and the Economic Policy Institute estimates that failure to continue FAC could result in job loss of up to 60,000.

Meanwhile, at the same time it is slashing vitally needed aid for jobless workers and their communities, Congress is choosing to preserve part of a major loophole that favors wealthy investment fund managers. Under the latest bill, one-quarter of the income of investment fund managers will still be taxed at the low 15% capital gains rate —“ lower than most working Americans pay —“ rather than the 35% income tax rate for the highest earners.

—Congress has become so concerned about reining in future deficits that it’s cutting spending by the unemployed and threatening to cut the heart out of the recovery. Many may shrug at the dollar amount, but eliminating the $25 weekly supplement will take away the basics from needy families —“ medicine, shelter, food —“ and sap consumer spending. That Congress would make these cuts while unemployment is still sky-high is a real betrayal of hard-working Americans,— said Owens. —The American people don’t support these choices,— she added.

In the face of deficit concerns, a recent poll found that Americans overwhelmingly support the continuation of health and jobless benefits for unemployed workers. When asked which statement they agree with more, 74% agreed that —With unemployment close to ten percent and millions still out of work, it is too early to start cutting back benefits and health coverage for workers who lost their jobs,— while only 21% agreed that —With the federal deficit over one trillion dollars, it is time for the government to start reducing spending on health care subsidies and unemployment benefits for the unemployed.—

Workers may contact the NELP Benefit Questions page or call 212-285-3025 x 309.

Of course, what they fail to realize in their bickering over deficits is the longer lasting impact that structurally unemployed and uninsured persons will have on the economy and the deficit. As one’s life deteriorates, and one becomes homeless, there is less and less chance of finding a job, or even the retraining needed to move most workers back into the workforce. Further, both federal and state budgets will be hard hit by the new destitute, who will move to welfare, food stamps, and medicaid to fill the gaps that temporary unemployment once filled. Yes, we need to get working again, but until the jobs recovery begins, we need to support those who are ready, willing, and able to work. Oh, and if you think it doesn’t affect you, you will be hit too because every dollar in UI benefits contributes $3 to the local economy, that jobs in stores and the other places where UI benefits get spent. No one is sitting on UI and living the high life (yes, I’m sure there are a few scammers out there, but they are more easily detected and prosecuted these days).

Current Events, Political

Advocacy for the unemployed

From Interfaith Worker Justice: Our Continued Engagement Required on the Unemployment Crisis

Do you know someone who is unemployed? Almost everyone does, since the official unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent. Maybe it’s you, someone in your family, church, mosque or synagogue who is getting an unemployment check and/or paying COBRA for health insurance. As of June 2, Congress allowed unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidies to lapse for hundreds of thousands of workers who have been out of work for extended periods of time. In a few days the Senate will decide whether to save jobs and services, help the unemployed and boost the economy.

In times of crisis, our faith communities respond with compassion. We call on the creator to comfort those affected and we engage in pastoral care that embraces a ministry of hope and solidarity. This unemployment crisis calls for our continued engagement. Our economic recovery is still weak, and the most vulnerable amoung us are still extremely fragile.

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS (TOLL FREE: 888-340-6521) and ask them to Support HR 4213! This will extend unemployment insurance and provide summer jobs for youth. Tell your Senators to also vote to restore COBRA health insurance subsidies and Medicaid assistance to states.

When you call 888-340-6521 you will enter your zip code and will be directed straight to your Senator’s offices after a brief message about jobs and Medicaid aid.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , ,

Do not separate work from religious practice

A forum at the New America Foundation finds that discourse on workplace flexibility issues must include religious practices. As issues surrounding workplace flexibility continue to be part of a national discourse, employers and policymakers should include the needs of religious Americans as part of that debate, several speakers said April 8.

At a discussion sponsored by the New America Foundation, several speakers representing various religious communities, along with a workplace flexibility advocate, discussed past religious discrimination cases based on workers who were denied accommodations for their religious practices. The speakers emphasized that legislation and increased information would help alleviate some of the challenges those workers face.

Katie Corrigan, the co-director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, a public policy initiative based at Georgetown University Law Center, said that the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility, held March 31, had brought to the fore issues surrounding the needs of working Americans for increased flexibility between work and commitments outside of work.

Although issues of work and religious observance had not been directly addressed at the forum, Corrigan said conflicts between work situations and religious practices were similarly practical challenges to other types of work-life conflicts. “Faith is part of the conversation” on flexibility, she said.

Religion as ‘Part of Identity.’

“People of faith should not be required to leave a part of their identity at the workplace door,” said Richard Foltin, the director of national and legislative affairs at the American Jewish Committee.

Although Congress in 1972 amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to mandate that employers accommodate religious employees if it did not put an “undue hardship” on the employer, various court rulings have made that standard difficult to enforce, Foltin said.

“Where the force of law is not strong enough, many employers recognize the mutual benefit of finding a fit between the needs of the employer and the employee,” Foltin said. Still, he said that religious discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had increased significantly since the mid-1990s. Although it was difficult to tell how many of those claims were directly related to accommodations, it was likely that they made up a good portion of the total, Foltin said.

Foltin also said that although no bill had yet been introduced in the current Congress, lawmakers had in the past introduced the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which he said would “provide a broad higher standard of protection to people who need accommodations in the workplace” for their religious practices by changing the interpretation of what constitutes an “undue hardship” for employers. The bill may again be introduced in the current Congress, Foltin said.

Meanwhile, Amardeep Singh, director of programs at the Sikh Coalition, highlighted issues faced by Muslim and Sikh workers who need to wear a turban or head scarf while on the job. He mentioned two instances, which he referred to as “back-of-the-bus cases,” in which employees of an airline and a rental car company were removed from public-facing customer service positions because of the religious articles they wore, and were put in other jobs with no public interaction but with their same pay and benefits.

‘Back-of-the-Bus’ Cases Unacceptable

Courts had ruled that such accommodations were acceptable, Singh said, but he argued that they were unacceptable since they labeled certain workers as “undesirable.” The point of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was to be “integrative,” Singh said, and when courts interpret cases in this way, it undermines the intent of the law.

Nathan Diament, of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, emphasized the importance of information to issues of religion and workplace flexibility. “Many of the problems that are present come from a lack of information,” he said. For example, many people know about Passover seders that take place on the first and second nights of that holiday, but fewer people know that observant Jews also observe two days at the end of Passover, possibly requiring time off from work.

In addition to holy day observances, other issues that may arise include the need of employees to take small portions of a day to pray or take part in other religious observances, along with conscience issues for employees, such as those surrounding health care workers and abortion.

“On the government enforcement side, in the employer community, and among employees, there’s a lot more information that needs to get out and a lot more education that needs to go on,” Diament said.

The panel also included Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director of the American Islamic Congress, who said that “by coming together to promote religious diversity in the U.S. we will offer an example to countries and societies around the world”; and Barry Bussey, director of legislative affairs at the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, who said that in general, his experience has been that when employers have been willing to accommodate religious workers, there usually is a way to accommodate them in a mutually satisfactory way.

In summarizing the discussion, Corrigan emphasized that in discussing workplace flexibility, employers and policymakers should recognize that “diversity is the norm. It shouldn’t be a surprise that people have religious obligations, just as it shouldn’t be a surprise that people have family responsibilities,” she said.

Perspective,

Government employees: higher requirements, more work, less pay

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence reports on a research study commissioned by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). The study determined that the pay gap has increased between employees in private, public sectors.

The pay gap between state and local government, and private sector employees has widened in recent years, with private sector workers’ wages and salaries outstripping those of their public sector counterparts, according to a report released April 28 by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security.

Among the findings in the report, which looked at two decades of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, are that:

  • Wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants such as education and work experience. State employees typically earn 11 percent less and local employees 12 percent less.
  • During the last 15 years, the pay gap has grown as earnings for state and local workers generally have declined relative to comparable private sector employees. The pattern of declining relative earnings remains true in most of the large states examined in the study, although there are some state-level variations.
  • Benefits make up a slightly larger share of compensation for the state and local sector. But even after accounting for the value of retirement, health care, and other benefits, state and local employees earn less than their private sector counterparts. On average, total compensation is 6.8 percent lower for state employees and 7.4 percent lower for local employees than for comparable private sector employees.
  • Jobs in the public sector typically require more education than private sector positions. Thus, state and local employees are twice as likely to hold a college degree or higher compared to private sector employees. Only 23 percent of private sector employees have completed college, as compared to about 48 percent in the public sector.

‘Picture Is Clear.’

“The picture is clear. In an apples-to-apples comparison, state and local government employees receive less compensation than their private sector counterparts,” Keith A. Bender, a report co-author and economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said in a joint statement from the center and NIRS.

“Jobs in state and local governments consist disproportionately of occupations that demand more education and skills. Indeed, accounting for these differences is critical in understanding compensation patterns,” according to John S. Heywood, a report co-author who also is a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Elizabeth K. Kellar, president and chief executive officer of the center, added that in a recent survey of government hiring managers, the center was told that, despite the economy, managers were finding it difficult to fill vacancies for highly-skilled positions such as engineering, environmental sciences, information technology, and health care professionals. “The compensation gap may have something to do with this,” she said.

Beth Almeida, NIRS executive director, said that the new report showed that the pattern of public sector jobs offering better benefits but with lower pay has continued. “What’s striking is that on a total compensation basis looking at pay and benefits, employees of state and local government still earn less than their private sector counterparts,” she said.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Workers Memorial Day

Today is Workers Memorial Day. Take a moment to remember and honor those workers killed and injured on the job. Just this month, 29 miners lost their lives in the West Virginia mining disaster. On average, 16 workers die each day from workplace injuries, 134 are estimated to die from work-related diseases, and thousands more are injured on the job. No one should die from making a living.

Today, I invite you to pray IWJ’s Litany for Workers Memorial Day.

When workers are killed, families are torn apart. When workers are injured, families suffer. On Workers Memorial Day, let us honor not only the workers but also the families they left behind. May the memory of fallen workers inspire us to continue and strengthen the fight for workplace safety.

This year it should also be called to mind that one of those killed in the tragic plane crash that killed many of Poland’s political and civic leaders was Anna Walentynowicz. Ms. Walentynowicz was the labor activist who spoke out for worker rights in communist controlled Poland. For her efforts at organizing workers, and advocating for just and equitable treatment of workers, she was fired from her job. Her firing led to the founding of the free Solidarity Trade Union. Keep her memory in mind today as well.

From The Guardian:

A welder and then a crane operator at the yard, in her youth Walentynowicz was a member of Poland’s Communist party. Appalled, however, by the corruption that she encountered and the suppression of free speech, she became involved in producing and distributing Robotnik Wybrzeza (Coastal Worker), a newspaper which she handed out in the shipyard, even to her Communist bosses.

The trigger for her disaffection with the party was said to be her discovery that one of her bosses had stolen money from her fellow employees and used it to participate in a lottery.

It was not only corruption that incensed her but the gradual realisation that far from helping to make Poland a better place for the people, workers’ rights and freedom of speech were being trampled on.

Despised by the shipyard’s management, later in her working life she would be segregated from other employees for her actions. The crisis would come, however, when the management finally moved against her in August 1980, firing her a few months before she was due to retire.

It was this clumsy action that led to the strike, which occurred in the midst of a period of profound political and economic problems for the Communist regime. The consequence of that action, led by then electrician Lech Walesa, was the emergence of Solidarity and also the Gdansk Agreement, which saw the government give in to the workers’ demands for a new social contract. Within two years the union would have 10 million members.

Also, from New York State’s Labor Department: Rochester Workers Memorial Day Ceremony and Capital District Workers Memorial Day Commemoration.

Christian Witness, Current Events, PNCC,

St. Barbara intercede for them

From Interfaith Worker Justice:

Mother Jones is often quoted as saying, “Pray for the Dead, Fight like hell for the Living.” The 25 miners who lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch mining disaster call us to both prayer and activism.

We must pray for the miners still missing, the miners who have lost their colleagues and the families of those killed. Let us pray for them individually and through our congregations. April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a time to remember those who have lost their lives in the workplace. Consider using IWJ’s Litany for Workers Memorial Day in one of your congregation’s services later this month.

We must also fight to protect those who work in dangerous workplaces like mines. The Upper Big Branch mine is operated by the Performance Coal Company, a non-union company operated by Massey Energy. In the last 22 years, the company has committed over 1,000 health and safety violations. Since the beginning of March 2010, the company has had 12 serious ventilation violations, including 8 for failing to follow the ventilation plan. This company had a pattern of violating health and safety guidelines. Such patterns of violations kill and maim workers.

Thank you for your prayers and your action.

The PNCC was founded among the coal miners of Scranton, PA and the surrounding area. The PNCC worked to educate and organize miners and other workers, alongside and in conjunction with the efforts of the Polish National Alliance.

The immigrant miners of 1897 faced many of the same dangers existent today. In my profession it is well established that evident patterns of bad behavior in business (tax evasion, safety and health violations, wage theft) are indicators of deeper problems that permeate the entire business. It is time to take off the rose colored glasses and see the bad guys for who they are, and to level the playing field for those who work ethically and within the law.

St. Barbara, intercede for the missing.
Blessed Mother, pray for the deceased.
Lord Jesus, by your cross and resurrection, have mercy on them all.

Christian Witness, , ,

Religion and the Labor movement – not living up to the standard

Two cases, highlighted below, where individuals, institutions, and a whole diocese have fallen short of the Church’s teaching on Labor.

From IWJ: Healthcare workers in Michigan–and across the country–need our support!

In his recent Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly speaks of the “grave dangers for the rights of workers” that today imperil so many of our friends and neighbors who struggle daily to provide security for their families. It is imperative that people of faith stand with those workers hoping to secure wages and benefits consistent with their dignity as children of God.

Ascension Health is the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system, comprised of 37 health systems or centers in 20 states, totaling over 570 hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, labs, and other facilities. The employees of Genesys Health System, a member of Ascension Health, provide health care services in the Flint, Michigan area.

The management of Genesys is proposing severe wage, benefit, and pension cuts for several hundred of its employees. These healthcare workers are men and women committed to serving the health and welfare of the members of their communities.

On Friday, March 12, Genesys workers and their supporters traveled to the Ascension headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. to protest these wage and benefit cuts. Workers also gathered at Ascension centers in seven cities across the country – Washington, D.C., Buffalo, N.Y., Tucson, Ariz, Detroit, Flint, Mich. and Kansas City, Mo. – and held vigils before the management of Ascension and its subsidiary, Genesys Health System.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reminds us that “among the elements of a just and fair workplace [in medical and health care centers] are: fair wages, adequate benefits, safe and decent working conditions…” (See A Fair and Just Workplace: Principles and Practices for Catholic Health Care.) These things are indispensible if we hope to assure quality care for patients and dignity for working people.

As has been seen in several Labor issues over the past few years, the message often does not translate into action. While the R.C. Church is not unique in pushing out Unions, or resisting employee efforts to unionize, it should hold itself to a higher standard, especially in light of Encyclicals exhorting fair treatment of workers going back to Leo XIII.

From the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit via BNA: Ninth Circuit Nixes Seminarian’s Wage Claim, Says Exception Applies to Priest-in-Training

The First Amendment’s “ministerial exception” barred a Catholic seminarian from bringing his claim for unpaid overtime compensation against the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle under the Washington Minimum Wage Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled March 16 (Rosas v. Corp. of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, 9th Cir., No. 09-35003, 3/16/10 [pdf]).

Judge Robert R. Beezer wrote for the unanimous panel that the “ministerial exception helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here.” “The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars [Cesar] Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings,” Beezer wrote.

In affirming the lower court, Beezer found that the interplay between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses carves out an exception to otherwise applicable statutes if enforcing them would interfere with religious organizations’ employment decisions about their ministers.

Seminarian in Ministry Training Program

Rosas was a Mexican seminarian who was required to participate in a ministry training program at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville, Wash., located in Snohomish County, as part of the ordination process for the Catholic priesthood.

Rosas and another Mexican seminarian, Jesus Alcazar, worked under the supervision of St. Mary’s parish priest, Horatio Yanez, performing some pastoral duties and doing maintenance work for the church in 2002.

In February 2006 both Rosas and Alcazar filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese alleging Yanez had sexually harassed Alcazar and that the Archdiocese fired them in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for complaining and reporting the conduct. The two men also claimed the Archdiocese had failed to pay them overtime compensation in violation of the Washington Minimum Wage Act.

Trial Court Dismisses Wage Claims

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington dismissed Rosas’s harassment claim because he had not indicated that he had been sexually harassed but allowed Alcazar’s sexual harassment claim to proceed (4 DLR A-10, 1/8/07).

Alcazar subsequently settled his sexual harassment claim against the Archdiocese and was dismissed from the lawsuit.

The district court dismissed all other claims on the pleadings as barred by the First Amendment’s ministerial exception. “This exception prohibits a court from inquiring into the decisions of a religious organization concerning the hiring, firing, promotion, rate of pay, placement or any other employment related decision concerning ministers and other non-secular employees,” the trial court said.

Ministerial Exception Applies to State Law Claims

Rosas argued on appeal that the district court had erred in dismissing his state law claim without first determining if requiring the church to pay overtime wages actually burdened the church’s religious beliefs. Second, Rosas argued that requiring the church to pay overtime wages did not implicate a protected employment decision. Finally, he claimed that the district court erred in determining on the pleadings that he was a “minister” to whom the exception applied.

The appellate panel disagreed. Beezer first clarified that although the district court had relied on precedent involving only Title VII cases, the exception also applied to state law claims.

Beezer wrote that the ministerial exception encompassed “all tangible employment actions” and barred lawsuits seeking damages for lost or reduced pay.

“Our previous cases focus on Title VII, but our analysis in those cases compels the conclusion that the ministerial exception analysis applies to Washington’s Minimum Wage Act as well,” Beezer wrote. “Because the ministerial exception is constitutionally compelled, it applies as a matter of law across statutes, both state and federal, that would interfere with the church-minister relationship.”

Next, Beezer disposed of Rosas’s assertion that the trial court should have considered if the law “actually” burdened the church. “The [ministerial] exception was created because government interference with the church-minister relationship inherently burdens religion.”

Overtime Claim Triggers Exception

In addition, Beezer said that Rosas had misinterpreted Ninth Circuit precedent in arguing that the payment of overtime wages was not a protected employment decision that would trigger the exception.

Beezer said that Rosas admitted that his case involved the training and selection of the Catholic Church’s priests-issues the Ninth Circuit had expressly addressed in Bollard v. Cal. Province of the Soc’y of Jesus, 196 F. 3d 940, 81 FEP Cases 660 (9th Cir. 1999); (232 DLR AA-1, 12/3/99).

“This case thus quintessentially follows Bollard’s explanation,” Beezer wrote. “Rosas interprets our case law too narrowly. Bollard refers not only to the selection of ministers but more broadly to ’employment decisions regarding … ministers,’ ”

Beezer wrote that the ministerial exception therefore encompassed “all tangible employment actions” and barred lawsuits seeking damages for lost or reduced pay.

Finally, Beezer rejected Rosas’s argument that the district court erred in ruling on the pleadings that the exception applied because Rosas claimed that his primary duties at the church primarily involved maintenance rather than ministerial duties…

Here is some text from Judge Beezer’s decision (emphasis mine and discussed below):

“The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 18 (1947). The interplay between the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses creates an exception to an otherwise fully applicable statute if the statute would interfere with a religious organization’s employment decisions regarding its ministers. Bollard v. Cal. Province of the Soc’y of Jesus, 196 F.3d 940, 944, 946-47 (9th Cir. 1999). This “ministerial exception” helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here. In this case, plaintiff Cesar Rosas seeks pay for the overtime hours he worked as a seminarian in a Catholic church in Washington. The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, 1 and we affirm.

…

Cesar Rosas and Jesus Alcazar were Catholic seminarians in Mexico. The Catholic Church required them to participate in a ministry training program at St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville, Washington as their next step in becoming ordained priests. At St. Mary, Rosas and Alcazar allegedly suffered retaliation for claiming that Father YanezCurrently Pastor of Holy Family Parish in Seattle, WA. sexually harassed Alcazar, and they eventually sued Father Yanez and the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle (“defendants”) under Title VII. 2 In addition, Rosas and Alcazar sued under supplemental jurisdiction for violations of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act for failure to pay overtime wages. See Wash. Rev. Code § 49.46.130. The district court dismissed the overtime wage claims on the pleadings, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c), and Rosas’s overtime wage claim is the only issue on appeal.

…

Because the judgment was on the pleadings, the pleadings alone must be sufficient to support the district court’s judgment. We thus base our decision on the very few allegations in Rosas’s complaint. Rosas alleges as follows:

1.3 … The Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle hosted [Rosas] as [a] participant[ ] in a training/pastoral ministry program for the priesthood.
. . . .
2.2 Cesar Rosas entered the seminary to become a Catholic priest in 1995 in Mexico.
2.3 As part of [his] preparation for ordination into the priesthood, the Catholic Church required [Rosas] to engage in a ministerial placement outside [his] diocese, under the supervision of a pastor of the parish into which [he was] placed. The Archdiocese of Seattle sends seminarians to Mexico and has Mexican seminarians come to its parishes. [Rosas was] placed in St. Mary Parish in Marysville, Washington under the supervision of defendant Fr. Horatio Yanez.
. . . .
2.10 … [Rosas] was hired to do maintenance of the church and also assisted with Mass. He … worked many overtime hours he was not compensated for.

First, I think the Court erred in defining exactly what a minister is. Is a seminarian a minister of the R.C. Church? It could be argued that in the Roman Church, prior to Vatican II, most seminarians were ministers of the Church since they were likely tonsured and deemed clerics entitled to beneficences (the civil benefits then enjoyed by clerics)This is still the case in the PNCC, where seminarians enter the clerical state via tonsure..

In this day and age a R.C. seminarian is no more a minister than your average lay person. They receive no beneficence from the Roman Church (health care, salary, stipend, room and board), nor are they entitled to carry out any ministry different than your average lay person (men and women both who may serve at the altar, distribute the Holy Eucharist – yuk, read the lessons, etc.). The average seminarian is just a student and a “civilian” with a vocational choice.

Next, seminaries are open to any lay person who may engage in a variety of ‘ministries’ or jobs in the Church. It is definitely no exclusive club and there is no real differentiation any longer. Any person may be in a training program related to their studies (an internship/externship) which makes the work these seminarians were doing no different from your average pew dweller. The Court, and likely the defendant’s lawyers, missed that point

Additionally, look at the work they were “hired” to do. The Archdiocese of Seattle took these university educated Mexicans, and in typically American fashion, made them maintenance men who also happened to serve as altar boys from time-to-time. It would only have been worse if the Archdiocese would have had them go out and pick crops. There is definitely something wrong here. If the ministerial teaching was to be about menial labor and humility, why not send them to a monastery?

Judge Beezer quoted the Fifth Circuit’s holding that if a person (1) is employed by a religious institution, (2) was chosen for the position based ‘largely on religious criteria,’ and (3) performs some religious duties … that person is a ‘minister’ for purposes of the ministerial exception,” What was missed was that the choice of these individuals for this service had very little to do with religious criteria and more to do with whether they had strong backs. Further, the religious duties portion of the test likely fails because the ministerial or religious portion of the training was so de minimis as to be almost non-existant.

So did the Court err in finding that these men were engaged in ministerial training? Absolutely! There was no ministerial training going on. These two young men were merely janitors, and the whole escapade a scam aimed at obtaining cheap labor. What happened here was wage theft, all disguised as “ministerial training;” another example of actions inconsistent with teaching.

As the Seattle Herald reported:

The two seminarians became disillusioned by the experience and have given up their quest to become priests…

“Both these young men had a lifelong dream of being priests,”… “It’s emotionally damaging when your lifelong dream and your spiritual vocation is shattered by the very people you entrusted that dream to.”

So much possibility wasted in a world plagued by a shortage of men willing to offer their lives for worship of God and service to His people. A sad case, and a case teetering on the edge of going the other way if all the facts had been established.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , ,

A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor

You can now pre-order Interfaith Worker Justice’s new book: A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor.

Next month Orbis Books is publishing A Worker Justice Reader: Essential Writings on Religion and Labor, an exciting anthology compiled by IWJ that will be a vital resource for seminaries, congregational study groups, social justice committees, labor unions, and beyond.

The book is organized into five parts:

  1. Crisis for U.S. Workers
  2. Religion-Labor History
  3. What Our Religious Traditions Say about Work
  4. Theology and the Ethics of Work
  5. The Religion-Labor Movement Today

I will be picking up a copy. I wonder if the role of the PNCC in Labor history will be included, as well as the role played by organizations like the Polish National Alliance (An interesting history, the PNA is generally non-sectarian and was a close ally of the PNCCMany PNCC Parishes had PNA Lodges, some more than one Lodge. The PNA and PNCC were united in their goals of organizing Poles in the United States for their own betterment, service to their homeland, and at the time independence for Poland. The PNA’s non-sectarian character (membership included Roman Catholics, PNC Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Poles of no denominational affiliation) led to accusations that it was communist, anti-clerical, engaged in organizing secret societies, and all sorts of other evils — generally from a cadre of Polish R.C. priests, most especially Rev. Wincenty Barzynski, a Resurrectionist priest in Chicago and co-founder of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. There were movements throughout the Alliance’s history to bar non-Roman Catholics from membership. They generally failed. As time has progressed, the Alliance while remaining non-sectarian, has assumed a more Roman Catholic identity. See Polish-American politics in Chicago, 1888-1940 By Edward R. Kantowicz, especially Chapter 3, ppg 28-37. in supporting Labor).

You can pre-order a copy online or by phone (call 800-258-5838 and use code WJR for FREE shipping) or through your local bookstore.

For suggestions on incorporating the Reader into your curriculum, contact Rev. April McGlothin-Eller, IWJ’s Student Programs Coordinator, at (773) 728-8400, ext. 21, or by E-mail.

Christian Witness, , ,

Love not in word or speech, but in truth and action

The title above from 1 John 3:18. From the Salt Lake Tribune: Churches help folks find jobs

Good works » For many worshippers, helping Utah’s unemployed is a spiritual mandate.

Larry Adakai was out of options.

He lost his welder job after taking too much time off to care for his ailing wife through numerous surgeries. The Navajo father had no savings and few places to turn.

That’s when the Rev. Steve Keplinger and the good folks at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Page, Ariz., part of the Utah diocese, stepped in.

They offered him handyman work around the church and prepared dinners for the family. They paid his union dues so he could be hired at a nearby site. They faxed his application to the new company, then gave him gas money to go there and take the necessary welder exams.

It took six months, but now Larry Adakai has the job, Mary Ann Adakai is fully recovered, and their 14-year-old son, Marcus, is feeling good about life.

Today’s economic realities are prompting more and more workers like the Adakais to turn to their religious communities for encouragement, advice, contacts, training, financial aid, spiritual solace and, frankly, jobs.

More than 90,000 Utahns are out of work, up nearly 20 percent from a year ago, as the state’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 percent in January. Executives, students, hairstylists, truck drivers, builders, Realtors, people in every profession and at every level face an unknown future, many for the first time.

“We used to place 300 people a month,” says Ballard Veater, manager of LDS Employment Services, who has worked for the church since 1978. “Now it’s half that many.”

When a person loses work, it’s like a death in the family where the one who died is you, Veater says. A job is at the core of who we are.

For many people of faith, helping the unemployed is more than a kindhearted gesture. It’s a spiritual mandate.

“When I was scared, they talked to me,” says Mary Ann Adakai of St. David’s leaders. “When I lost all hope, they helped me with prayers.” Indeed, such assistance is the centerpiece of Keplinger’s theology.

“Trying to help people get back on their feet is the most Christ-centered thing we can do,” he says. “It is more important than worship.”

…

Joining religious forces

Sunday was hardly a sabbath, an unemployed Presbyterian woman told Anne Gardner last fall, because of the stress of not knowing what Monday would bring.

That comment prompted Gardner, a business executive, to launch the Park City Career Network, with a handful of faith leaders.

Gardner, a Catholic, invited Ellen Silver, the director of Jewish Family Services; Bill Humbert, an executive recruiter and a member of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Parish; and Dale M. Matthews, a career coach and Greek Orthodox, to join her in a weekly workshop at Temple Har Shalom in Park City. Among other benefits, the effort helps job-hungry seekers define “The Brand Called You.”

The group offers people of all faiths free training similar to the LDS approach. It also provides monthly speakers, who might address such topics as debt negotiations, retirement planning and the emotional stress of job searching.

The typical job seekers are in their early to mid-40s, with either college or graduate education, working at a management level or above. They are not used to having to look for a job. The weekly meetings, begun last fall, attract about 15 people; 21 “graduates” have found jobs and another nine have started their own businesses through this effort.

“We encourage people to reach out in the community, to be active in the community, and make sure you continue your routines,” Gardner says. “We tell them to have faith in whatever their guiding principles are.”…

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

Unemployment, Jobs, and Justice

Two from Interfaith Worker Justice:

Extend Unemployment and COBRA Now!

Are you unemployed? Do you know someone who is? Urgent action is needed to make sure that Congress extends the lifeline for workers by extending unemployment and COBRA coverage before the end of the month. Your response will help someone put food on the table, keep their lights on and of course, enable them to live with some dignity during this harsh economic climate. Click Here to take action!

This isn’t an issue of slackers who sit around enjoying a check. There are too few jobs for too many unemployed workers, approx. 1 job for every 4 persons unemployed. Further, the skill sets of many unemployed workers will not transfer forward. They will need significant retraining to be prepared for the time when jobs once again become available. Also remember that unemployment assistance, which is temporary help for people who are ready, willing, and able to work, makes an immediate economic impact. Those dollars are spent, returning $1.67 to the economy for every dollar in assistance.

Principles on Jobs

It is time for people of faith to act and bring their moral vision to the national conversation on jobs.

Interfaith Worker Justice has stood with workers in times of economic prosperity and stands with them now in this time of economic crisis. Yet we are continually confronted by stories of workers who want to work but can’t find jobs, workers whose hours have been cut from full time to part time and workers who have been victimized by employers who will not pay them for the work they have done.

Our religious traditions teach us that work is a sacred act, that when we labor we are —God’s hands— on earth. Those who work and those who cannot work must be treated fairly. —Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages.— (Jeremiah 22:13)

As people of faith, we call for an economy that provides a good job for everyone who wants and needs one. While it is good and right to pass measures that can put some people back to work, it is not enough. All jobs should be good jobs, paying living wages and benefits, allowing workers dignity and a voice at the workplace, ensuring worker’s health and safety, and guaranteeing their right to organize unions.

IWJ has developed a “Statement of Principles” on Jobs that I have signed. Please join me in signing that principle statement.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023