Descriptive Summary
Catholic Labor Institute Collection.
1944-2003
CSLA-41
Coogan, Thomas. F., Reverend, d. 1947
Henning, Patrick W.
4 linear feet(1 archival document box, 2 oversize boxes)
Loyola Marymount University. Library. Department of Archives and Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90045-2659
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 represented in the collection:
English
Access
Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University.
Publication Rights
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.
Preferred Citation
[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.
Acquisition Information
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).
Arrangement
The Catholic Labor Institute Collection is arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Subject Files
- Series 2: Oversized Photographs
- Series 3: Album
Indexing Terms
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
Box and Folder List
Series 1: Subject Files
1.0 document boxes
1944-2003
Series Description
This series consists of subject files that
Patrick W. Henning created as director of the
Catholic Labor Institute (CLI). There are also subject files related to the early work of the CLI under
Reverend Thomas F. Coogan and Reverend Joseph V. Kearney in the 1940s and 1950s, which Henning probably preserved. For example, the materials in folder 1 came from a file folder labelled in pencil "Institute History," which Henning may have kept for his own reference or to preserve the history of the CLI or both.
Materials in this series include newspaper clippings on labor issues in Los Angeles and California or the CLI, pamphlets for training programs and classes of the CLI, press releases, correpsondence, the newsletter of the CLI ("The Mediator"), speeches, and photographs.
General Subject File
1
1
1.0 folder
1944-1986
Scope and Contents note
Father Joseph V. Kearney and
Reverend Thomas F. Coogan incoming and outgoing correspondence,
The Mediator (Catholic Labor Institute newsletter), memorandum and registrants list re National Catholic Social Action Conference, radio script
"Institute History"
1
2
1.0 folder
1957-1962
Scope and Contents note
Photographs of annual Labor Day mass and breakfast, with Cardinal James Frances McIntyre, Burton Chace, and "Father Kearney." Catholic Labor Insitute pamphlets. Speech of Reverend Thomas F. Coogan.
Cardinal Roger Mahoney Subject File
1
3
1.0 folder
1975-1991
Scope and Contents note
Catholic Labor Institute pamphlets. Cardinal Roger Mahoney statement re disturbance at California Agricultural Labor Board. Patrick W.Henning incoming and outgoing correspondence with Cardinal Roger Mahoney. Newspaper clippings re Roman Catholic social policy.
General Subject File
1
4
1.0 folder
1971-1989
Scope and Contents note
Catholic Labor Institute press release. Notes (by Patrick W. Henning?). Newspaper articles (copies). 38 black and white 8x10 photographs, including Tom Bradley, Archbishop Timothy Manning, Cardinal John Francis McIntyre, and Cardinal Roger Mahony. Patrick W Henning outgoing correspondence with Cardinal Mahony. Catholic Labor Institute pamphlets.
Correspondence with Cardinal Roger Mahony
1
5
1.0 folder
1989
Scope and Contents note
Catholic Labor Institute confidential memorandum re Cardinal Roger Mahony. Patrick W. Henning incoming and outgoing correspondence with Cardinal Roger Mahony, especially re cemetery workers' unionization. Copy of California State Assembly Bill 1100, with supporting material.
Citizenship Class
1
6
1.0 folder
1956
Scope and Contents note
Photograph, newspaper clipping re Catholic Labor Institute citizenship class.
General Subject File
1
7
1.0 folder
1958-2003
Scope and Contents note
Copies of
Mediator, Catholic Labor Institute newsletter. Reverend Joseph V. Kearney incoming correspondence. Newsletter and flyer from "Capitol Ministries," private, conservative religious organization at California state legislature.
"CLI Industrial Homework"
1
8
1.0 folder
1958-1990
Scope and Contents note
Incoming and outgoing correspondence, Catholic Labor Institute position paper re industrial homework. Meeting minutes, newsletter, list of directors re Catholic Social Action Conference.
Series 2: Oversized Photographs
1ov
1.0 oversized document boxes
1954-1962
Scope and Contents note
This series consists of seven panoramic photographs of the annual Labor Day breakfasts that the
Catholic Labor Institute held in Los Angeles, at such hotels as the
Biltmore and the
Statler. The photographs are all found in Box 1ov.
Series 3: Catholic Labor Institute Album
2ov
1.0 oversized document boxes
1945-1953
Scope and Contents note
This series consists of an album, found in box 2ov, of photographs, correspondence, flyers and pamphlets, and newspaper clippings documenting the activities of the Catholic Labor Institute (CLI) and Reverend Thomas F. Coogan from 1945 to 1952. Perhaps Reverend Joseph V. Kearney assembled it. Of special interest is the correspondence and CLI flyer denouncing the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1421, dominated by Communists, in its bid to lead the union at Standard Coil.
Also included are loose newspaper articles from Roman Catholic newspapers (The Tidings and The Southern Cross) on the activities of Roman Catholic Church in labor issues in Southern California.