Law and Faith at Center of Ky. Labor Lawyer’s Career
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Dave Suetholz says he wanted a career built on his Catholic faith. So he became a labor lawyer.
“Look at the principles of the labor movement—solidarity, standing with your neighbors, caring about your neighbors. That’s a fundamentally Christian idea that flows directly from the love commandment. Unions are a vehicle to a more just world. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Suetholz, 33, is general counsel for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, the Bluegrass State’s name for what most states call the Department of Labor. The Fort Mitchell native started his career as a law clerk for the Mine Workers (UMWA) in Washington, D.C. He went to work for Kentucky Labor Secretary J.R. Gray after becoming a partner in Segal, Lindsay and Janes, a Louisville law firm that represents unions.
He admits he is a rarity in Kentucky. “I’m a liberal Democrat,” he says, grinning. He also confesses he wasn’t born union. “My parents are Republicans. My dad is a family doctor.”
Louisiana’s Religious Community: We Need Employee Free Choice Now
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In an open letter to U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, 118 Louisiana ministers and religious leaders are demanding the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to protect dignity and justice for all workers.
Hailing from across the state and representing a broad spectrum of faiths, the coalition of religious leaders announced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act in a press conference in New Orleans yesterday. They presented their open letter and asked their senators to recognize that the vital freedom of workers to form unions and bargain is under threat.
The letter reads, in part:
Whenever people stand together in mutual commitment and for the common purpose of promoting and protecting their most essential dignity—a dignity that issues directly from God—then we as people of faith and good conscience have a moral responsibility to stand with them. We have a responsibility to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We make this appeal to the conscience of every Member of Congress.
Georgetown University Grants Highest Honor to President John Sweeney
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It’s rare for a major university like Georgetown to grant honorary degrees. But rare are individuals like AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Last night in a formal robe and gown ceremony followed by a celebration with Archbishop Donald Wuerl in Georgetown’s elegant Riggs Library, Georgetown University President John DeGioia conferred upon Sweeney the degree, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Sweeney has dedicated his life to improving the lives of America’s working families, motivated in large part by his religious faith, one infused with the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church. Recognizing how Catholic doctrine influenced Sweeney’s life-long quest for justice and fairness for working people, DeGioia explained the importance of honoring Sweeney:
For many years, John Sweeney has worked to champion the dignity of workers—and work. And we at Georgetown take seriously the Catholic commitment to social justice for working people that has inspired John Sweeney’s remarkable career. That commitment has recently led us, with the help of the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, to inaugurate a new effort here, the “Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor,” which we will formally inaugurate later this fall—and in whose work we hope to engage many of you in the years to come. Through its work, we hope to contribute, in our own way, to the tradition that John Sweeney has so well exemplified.
Episcopal Church Supports Employee Free Choice Act
The Episcopal Church has added its support to the growing movement for the Employee Free Choice Act.
At the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, held July 8-17, bishops and deputies approved a resolution asking Congress and the president to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.
The resolution, “Fix Our Broken Labor Laws,” explains that the church strongly supports the freedom of workers to collectively bargain for a better life.
Episcopal bishops and deputies are asking Congress to pass legislation that fulfills three key principles, the resolution says:
- Provide workers the choice of seeking union recognition either through an election or through a majority sign-up on cards, which are then verified by the National Labor Relations Board.
- Adopt more effective remedies for violations of employees’ rights, comparable to the remedies for discrimination provided by existing civil rights laws.
- Where the employers and unions are unable to reach agreement on their first collective bargaining agreement within a reasonable period of time, resolve the dispute by submitting it to mediation and if mediation is unsuccessful, then to binding arbitration.
Faith Leaders, Working Women Take Action to Support Employee Free Choice Act
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This morning, 20 religious leaders in Hammond, Ind., met with union members from the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor to talk about the need for the Employee Free Choice Act and sign a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh asking him to support workers’ freedom to form unions.
Today’s breakfast is just a small part of a national effort on behalf of faith communities in support of the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Union members, religious leaders, Working America members and a wide range of allies have made their voices heard with prayer vigils and rallies at Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s offices all around Arkansas, including Little Rock, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Texarkana and El Dorado. They’ve also held vigils in Indiana, including events in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, as well as Omaha, Neb., and Missoula, Mont.
