Labor Day

                                                             How I spent Labor Day

Labor Day this year, fell on September 5, 2011.  This year it has meant many things, to me.  First of all, as a Union Member, I give thanks that my union speaks for me.  I would have no chance sitting across the table, from management and negotiating working conditions.  I've been there alone and just don't have the political savvy to see their agenda.  Stupidly, I believe everything management tells me.  I just assume that they have my interests in mind.  Besides, negotiating isn't something I do often.  To me, it's just common sense to have people whose job is to represent me, represent me.  They've trained to do just that.  How could any worker oppose this idea?  Those workers who are anti-union are just jealous that they don't have representatives working for them.  Either they should start their own union to represent their ideas, or give back the benefits that unions have have gotten for all workers, negotiated in collective bargaining.

Yes, I know unions can be corrupt.  Duh.  Did you think they're governed divinely?  Are all popes good people?  Of course unions have their faults, but it is the only voice workers have.  If we lived in the Garden of Eden, we'd have no need of unions.  But we don't.  I thank God for my union membership.

Labor Day also reminds me to send up a prayer for Boston's Labor Priest, Father Edward Boyle, s.j..  His Labor Guild is where AFSCME Local 1298 union reps were trained.

The Labor Guild was created in 1946 by Cardinal Cushing to educate 

Catholic workers about their rights and responsibilities.  Today, the Guild 

continues to run a School of Industrial Relations and offers classes to workers in 

labor law, collective bargaining, steward training, union governance, 

parliamentary procedure, public speaking, organizing, and the philosophy of 

unionism.  Hundreds of students benefit each year from experts and practitioners 

in labor, management, and arbitration who contribute their services.   The Guild 

also provides a neutral venue for collective bargaining, arbitration, and union 

elections.  But most importantly, over the years the Guild, under Father Boyle’s 

leadership, has grown to become the moral voice for labor management 

relations, providing opportunities for the area’s leading union and management 

leaders to meet,  build close personal relationships, and explore ways to work on 

shared problems

                 http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/people/staffPapers/kochan/kochan_fahey.pdf

Thank you, Lord for Rerum Novarum, Centisumus Annus, and the Catholic Labor Network.

Labor Day also marks the end of summer on the Cape.  There are still some of the best beach
days left on the Cape.  The crowds have gone, and you can practically have the entire beach to yourself.  The water is warm.  Sometimes warmer than the air.

And although, we might still spend some weekends down here, this weekend is the last weekend that my entire family is together.  That's what these pictures depict.

More reason to thank God.  Deo Gratias.

Life isn't Perfect

Today, the Parish Council was sent on a retreat. Sister Dorothea told us a story that just didn't sit well with me. I know that what bothered me wasn't the point, so I didn't say anything. But it just "goes up one side of me, and down the other," rubbing the wrong way.

Sister Dorothea said she goes to sleep listening to the radio and the speaker once told a story where he had finished a show (he was an entertainer) and returned to his hotel, the Ritz Carlton. It was past midnight. He rang up room service and order supper. When room service came, the guest noticed that the condiments were missing. He complained--rather unkindly. The bus boy, or whatever you call the person who works for room service, responded, "Life's not perfect."

The response rendered the man speechless. He didn't know what to say. The more he thought about it, the more he regretted his cranky reprimand. In fact, this was a life changing declaration. "Life's not perfect."

That was the end of Sister Dorothea's story.

However, it left a bad taste and feeling in my mouth. This was an example of poor customer service. It could have been cause for firing. Maybe the bus boy belonged to a union and felt secure. But I belong to a union and while I may not be fired, I would have been written up. I would have had to have a "hearing." We union members up on the seniority scale are forever being shot at. Management would love an excuse to fire us. We're "maxed" out, salary wise. If one of us left, cheaper employees could be hired at minimum wage. Better still, two part timers would be hired at 19 hours. In that way, no benefits would be paid.

Sigh..........

Sometimes religious life just isn't real.

AFSCME Council 93 Local 1298

We had a Union meeting tonight. The purpose was to discuss the anticipated lay-offs. Some people are quite creative with suggested proposals. I am impressed. But not only am I impressed with their creative solutions, but more impressed for the concern my brothers and sisters have for each other.

Some are willing to go without raises to save another's job: or work a day without pay. If we all give a little, maybe we can help each other, was the idea.

Aquinas is right. Man is basically good.