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French retirement reforms fuel oil workers anger

24 Oct 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The Lord is a God of justice,” we are assured in this Sunday’s first reading, not deaf to the complaints of those who suffer. The French nation is reeling this week from strikes by defiant oil workers who complain that government retirement reforms are unjust. As the strikes spread to other sectors, motorists flocked to gas stations in panic and found many empty, while airlines drastically cut back flights for lack of fuel. Workers blocked roads to airports around France Wednesday, leaving passengers in Paris to drag suitcases hundreds of yards on foot to reach their terminals. Outside the capital, hooded youths smashed store windows amid clouds of tear gas. Riot police in black body armor forced striking workers away from blocked fuel depots in western France, restoring gasoline to areas where pumps were dry after weeks of protests over the government proposal raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. Many workers feel the change would be a first step in eroding France’s generous social benefits. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government points out that 62 is among the lowest retirement ages in the world, the French are living much longer than they used to, and the pension system is losing money. Workers say the government could find pension savings elsewhere, such as by raising contributions from employers. Despite France’s long tradition of tolerance for strikes and protest, official patience appeared to be waning after weeks of actions that have snarled traffic, cancelled flights, and led to dwindling gasoline supplies and, now, rising urban violence. Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, “The government will continue to dislodge protesters blocking the fuel depots. . . . No one has the right to take hostage an entire country, its economy, and its jobs.” The protests in France come as countries across Europe are cutting spending and raising taxes to bring down record deficits and debts from the worst recession in 70 years. Source: Articles by Greg Keller and Jenny Barchfield for Associated Press

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Pakistan ready to send NATO forces packing

04 Dec 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the Sunday readings the prophet Isaiah calls on God to comfort the people and speak tenderly to Jerusalem, which “has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.” NATO and the U.S. military are hoping to achieve reconciliation with the Pakistani people after a NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers over the weekend. So far, however, they can take little comfort from Pakistan’s scathing criticism. The rhetoric following the errant strike has been heated, and on Wednesday the U.S.' top military officer strongly rejected accusations from Pakistan that NATO deliberately killed the Pakistani soldiers. "The one thing I will say publicly and categorically is that this was not a deliberate attack," said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff. In comments widely published in Pakistani media, Pakistan's director general of military operations, Major General Ishfaq Nadeem, had described the NATO cross-border attack as a deliberate, blatant act of aggression. The incident has plunged U.S.-Pakistan ties into crisis and threatens to set back peace efforts in neighboring Afghanistan, where the U.S. is gradually withdrawing troops after a decade of war. Pakistan has pulled out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan's future. It has also blocked ground supply routes through Pakistan to U.S. forces in Afghanistan and ordered the U.S. to vacate a remote air base in Pakistan used for drone flights. "Business as usual will not be there," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said when asked if ties with the U.S. would continue. "We have to have something bigger so as to satisfy my nation." Sources: Articles by Phil Stewart, Qasim Nauman, and Chris Allbritton for Reuters and Omar Waraich for TIME

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Striking news from Chicago's public schools

16 Sep 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The Lord keeps the little ones,” says the psalmist this Sunday. Though progress was made in contract negotiations, which went until midnight last night and will continue this morning, many Chicago parents will be keeping their little ones at home or making other arrangements as the first strike by Chicago teachers in 25 years goes into its fourth day.By last Sunday union and district officials had failed to reach a contract agreement despite protracted negotiations that the union said failed to adequately address issues such as job security and teacher evaluations. The biggest U.S. labor strike in a year is keeping more than 350,000 children from kindergarten to high school out of school.In the event the strike persists, its tone and outcome could ripple well beyond Chicago, given Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s close association with President Barack Obama. Union support is important to the Obama campaign, which has been careful not to weigh in, even as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney swiftly spoke out against the Chicago teachers.The strike also offers a high-profile test for the nation's teachers' unions, which have seen their political influence threatened by a growing but controversial movement that seeks to expand charter schools, get private companies involved with failing schools, and link teacher evaluations to student test scores."They certainly are on the defensive," said Richard Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, of the teachers’ unions. "They are under attack. A lot of times they are demonized. On the other hand there's really smart and progressive elements in the teacher's movement who want to get out ahead of this and do it in a way that's fair." Sources: Articles by Peter Slevin for the Washington Post, Don Babwin and Tammy Webber for the AssociatedPress, Mary Wisniewski and James B. Kelleher for Reuters, and Celeste M. Ball for WGN-TV.

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Europeans pan austerity in pan-national protests

18 Nov 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Book of Daniel this Sunday predicts “a time unsurpassed in distress.” Thousands of Europeans struggling to get by during a time of rising unemployment and falling economic activity took to the streets in cities from Portugal to Greece Wednesday in the first coordinated pan-national day of protest against their governments’ austerity programs.A wave of labor unrest swept across Europe, with workers in hard-hit countries working jointly across borders to protest years of narrowing prospects, shrinking wages, and sky-high unemployment.In what appeared to be the most organized pan-continental labor disruption since the euro crisis began more than three years ago, Spanish and Portuguese workers went on a general strike while Italian and Greek unions held part-day work stoppages. There was a limited strike in Belgium and small protests in richer nations across Europe.But the protests seemed unlikely to disrupt what has become an almost unstoppable trend, say analysts, who predict the possibility of years of grinding austerity in struggling southern European countries with limited prospects for growth in the near future.Homily hint: The current difficulties in the euro zone are a stark reminder that the world economy is inextricably linked and that times of distress in one zone can trigger distress across the globe. Pray for those who suffer hardship around the world today. Source: An article by Michael Birnbaum for the Washington Post

protests austerity strikes eurozone

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