The Catholic - Labor Network

Documents & Articles which concern Catholic and Labor Issues Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings Msgr. George Higgins Catholic Worker Connection General Articles of Interest  Home Page  The Catholic-Labor Network E-Mail List  The Catholic-Labor Network is dependent on interested persons sharing their activities struggles, victories and prayers with other like minded men and women of faith. We strongly invite all those who visit this page, and who share  a common interest in issues effecting the Catholic Church and the Labor Movement to subscribe.  Occasionally, notices will be sent when this page is updated.  When important events happen, we will pass on the information through the e-mail list, and most of all, the e-mail list is a means by which we can pray and support each other. Some Catholic and Labor Links The Holy See  The National Conference of Catholic Bishops  Human Rights for Workers  The Catholic Social Doctrine Page  The Houston Catholic Worker  Catholic Online  National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice  The Seamless Garment Network  The International Labour Organization  The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations  The International Transport Workers Federation Union Web

Cesar Chavez in the Labor Hall of Fame Msgr. George G. Higgins January 18, 1999  One of the most beloved and electrifying figures in the history of organized labor, Cesar Chavez, founding president of the United Farm Workers, will be inducted Jan. 28 at the U.S. Labor Department as the Labor Hall of Fame honoree for 1998. Chavez, who died in 1993, was the dynamic leader of the nation's farm workers. For years he labored under unspeakable conditions as they harvested fruits and vegetables for the powerful agricultural growers of the West Coast. The selection of Chavez came exactly five years after his death and in his first year of eligibility for election to the Labor Hall of Fame. Rules stipulate that a nominee must have been deceased at least five years to qualify. The choice of Chavez was made by the hall's 10-member selection panel, which I am privileged to chair.  The Labor Hall of Fame is sponsored by Friends of the Labor Department, a committee made up of former secretaries of labor, prominent labor leaders and government officials, and other distinguished citizens.   Each person inducted into the hall of fame is memorialized in a permanent display in the lobby of the U.S. Department of Labor. When I learned that Chavez had been selected as this year's honoree I recalled with bittersweet nostalgia that almost 30 years ago I witnessed the signing, in the presence of hundreds of UFW members and supporters, of collective-bargaining contracts across the board in California's table-grape industry. The occasion was historic.  Perhaps all of us were too optimistic, even na<ve, but it appeared then that the UFW had, at long last, won its costly struggle for survival and was finally in a position to extend its organizing efforts into other crops, not only in California, but throughout the nation's agricultural industry. Tragically, however, that was not to be. Almost three decades later the UFW still is being forced to struggle against seemingly impossible odds to achieve its original goals.  The odds, however, are not impossible. The UFW will prevail. In the words of the UFW's familiar Spanish slogan, "Si, se puede'': "Yes, it can be done.''  This is no mere exercise in wishful thinking. It reflects the overriding consensus of those who have studied the farm-worker problem at close range and are familiar with the union's history. Time and public opinion are on the farm workers' side. As one writer put it, those trying to destroy the UFW "think they are fighting Cesar Chavez, but they are really fighting time ... and there is no more ruthless or relentless an enemy.''  The reason so many people in and out of the movement are confident that time is on the UFW's side is simple: They have implicit confidence, over the long haul, in the decency, good sense and good judgment of the American people. " Americans,'' as one historian of the farm-labor movement phrased it, "are sometimes tolerant of unfairness for long periods of time.... But the value system of the United States stresses the very qualities called for by the farm-labor movement: freedom of association, self-determination, fair play. It is always to the advantage of any social movement if, rather than demanding a whole new set of social values, it asks society simply to live up to those which it already professes.'' That is precisely what the disadvantaged farm workers are asking society to do: live up to the values it professes. They are asking for nothing more than that, and they will settle for nothing less -- nor, one hopes, will the American people, now that the issues involved in the farm-labor struggle have become general knowledge.     Papal Social Encyclicals   Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest  Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins  Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre