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Inventory of the Catholic Labor Institute Collection
CSLA-41
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Title: Catholic Labor Institute Collection.
Dates: 1944-2003
Collection number: CSLA-41
Creator:
Coogan, Thomas. F., Reverend, d. 1947
Creator:
Henning, Patrick W.
Collection Size:
4 linear feet(1 archival document box, 2 oversize boxes)
Repository:
Loyola Marymount University. Library. Department of Archives and Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90045-2659
Abstract: This collection consists of photographs and organizational subject files of the Catholic Labor Institute that document the
organization's early history in Los Angeles from the late 1940s through the early 1950s, and then the final years of its existence,
the late 1980s to circa 1991.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount
University.
Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise,
Loyola Marymount University does not claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or publisher
must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola Marymount University does not assume any responsibility
for infringement of copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her heirs, assigns, or
executors.
[Identification of item], Series number, Box number and Folder number, Catholic Labor Institute Collection, CSLA-41, Department
of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University.
Donation of Patrick W. Henning, through Kenneth C. Burt. Michael Engh, S.J., served as the intermediary for the Leavey Center
for the Study of Los Angeles Research Collection, 2003.
History of the Catholic Labor Institute
Reverend Thomas F. Coogan founded the
Catholic Labor Institute (CLI) on 13 February 1947;
Reverend Joseph V. Kearney was it spiritual director. Membership was for "practical Catholics" and for members of labor unions, per the CLI's constitution.
That Los Angeles Archbishop
John Cantwell blessed the organization spoke to its roots in the Roman Catholic Church. The purpose of the CLI was to support workers
and labor unions in Southern California through such means as newsletters, programs and classes, discussion groups, counseling,
and a speakers bureau.
The group's purpose was fulfilled in different ways. Coogan headed—before his untimely death 26 October 1947—the Leo XIII
School of Social Action. Other CLI outreaches included the Pius XI School of Labor Relations, at St. Mary's in Boyle Heights
that Reverend
Thomas O'Dwyer directed. In 1947, Coogan set the tone for the Catholic Labor Institute at its first Labor Day mass at St. Vibiana's Cathedral
(which became an annual event presided over by the archbishop of Los Angeles, along with a breakfast) when he criticized the
Taft-Hartley Labor Act, which had curtailed the Wagner Act. The union leaders in the pews were undoubtedly pleased at this
denunciation.
The CLI also took an active stance against Communism, opposing the communist-dominated United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers (UE) Local 142 in its drive to lead Standard Coil in Los Angeles.
The Catholic Labor Institute was especially active in the Mexican-American community of Los Angeles, including the
International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (See the blog post of Kenneth Burt "Catholic Labor Institute in Los Angeles", http://http://kennethburt.com/blog/?p=729;
accessed 13 September 2012). To this end, it offered citizenship classes in support of its Mexican American constitutents.
The last director of the CLI was
Patrick W. Henning. The organization ended sometime in the early 1990s.
Description of the Catholic Labor Institute Collection
The
Catholic Labor Institute Collection documents the history of the Catholic Labor Institute (CLI) through photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings,
flyers, pamphlets, and personal notes (most likely those of the last director of the CLI, Patrick W. Henning). The materials
principally cover the first five years of the CLI's existence (1947-1952), and the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Patrick
W. Henning was its director--and its last.
Of special interest in this collection are the materials documenting the break between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under
Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Catholic Labor Institute over the unionization of the archdiocese's cemetery workers (see Series 1, Box 1, Folders
4 and 5). Also noteworthy are the materials on the classes and programs that the CLI sponsored to educate and train workers
in union organizing (see Series 1, Box 1, Folder 1; and Series 3, Box 2ov).
The Catholic Labor Institute Collection is arranged in the following series:
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Coogan, Thomas. F., Reverend, d. 1947
Henning, Patrick W.
Kearney, Joseph V., Reverend
Mahony, Roger Michael, Cardinal, 1936-
Working Class -- California -- Los Angeles
Labor Movement -- California -- Los Angeles -- History
Labor -- Religious Aspects -- Catholic Church