What are your plans for Labor Day this year? Sept. 7 represents an annual "national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country," according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Web site. But for many Americans, Labor Day has become more about store sales and end-of-summer family picnics than a time to reflect on our appreciation for those who haul our trash, teach our children, erect and maintain our buildings and check us out at the grocery store. In the current economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, it is especially important that we return Labor Day to its original purpose and show our gratitude to the workers in our community. But we need to do more than that. We should also reflect upon the pain many working people are enduring due to joblessness, low pay and lack of dignity on the job, and we should get involved in efforts to alleviate that pain.

When I was growing up, it was almost part of the catechism that Catholics backed labor unions. We were taught that papal encyclicals on social and economic justice put us on the side of legitimate demands from workers. That centuries-old support received new clarity in June of 2009 when Catholic health workers and the U.S. Bishops delivered "Respecting the Just Rights of Workers."

In the spirit of the papal social encyclicals, this new document puts the American Church in support of union rights for the 21st century, which logically includes teachers in Catholic schools.

A new U.S. bishops' document aimed at improving long-troubled labor relations in Catholic health care "is an enormous breakthrough," said Manhattan College religious studies professor Joseph J. Fahey, chairman of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice.

"This is a milestone event," said union leader Gerald M. Shea, assistant for government affairs to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.

"It's just stunning," said John Carr, secretary for justice, peace and human development at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "I mean, you have the highest levels of the labor movement and the Catholic Church reaching an agreement when nobody else can, and it's a wonderful process."

The 16-page document, released June 22 by the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, is titled "Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions."

The debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, or Card Check, which has raged for months, has taken an interesting turn - straight through church doors.

At its heart, the EFCA eases union organization rules and, in theory, clears a path for organized labor to eliminate a secret ballot in elections on whether to unionize. Republicans and business leaders say union leaders will use the open voting process to intimidate workers they know oppose unionization.

Joshua Garcia was at school when immigration agents arrested his undocumented parents.

"I didn't get to see my dad for six weeks and when I did he was in prison with people watching over him with guns," Garcia tearfully told an overflowing crowd at an immigration forum Saturday.

The event was held at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. The national "Familias Unidas" Immigration Forum has visited 23 cities in what organizers hope will become the first of many meetings between religious and political groups.

U.S. Rep Jared Polis asked Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' Immigration Task Force, to bring the touring forum to Colorado.

Americans are hardly in the mood to welcome new immigrants. The last thing we need, the reasoning goes, is more competition for increasingly scarce jobs. But the need for immigration reform is more urgent than ever. The current system hurts wages and working conditions - for everyone. Today, millions of undocumented immigrants accept whatever wage is offered. They don't protest out of fear of being fired or deported. A few hundred thousand guest workers, brought in for seasonal and agricultural jobs, know that asserting their rights could result in a swift flight home. This system traps migrants in bad jobs and ends up lowering wages all around. The solution lies in greater mobility for migrants and a new emphasis on workers' rights. If migrants could move between jobs, they would be free to expose abusive employers. They would flow to regions with a shortage of workers, and would also be able to return to their home countries when the outlook there brightened, or if jobs dried up here.

Led by Interfaith Worker Justice, religious organizations and faith groups have been working hard for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. A dozen faith groups and 50 faith leaders came together March 9 at the Methodist House on Capitol Hill to reaffirm their support for the Employee Free Choice Act and to discuss the theological foundation of that support from Judaism, Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity. The Rev. Adam Taylor of Sojourners quoted liberally from both the Old and New Testaments, including Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 22 and St. Luke, to make the point that God commands the faithful to fight poverty and inequality. He went on to say that in a society and economy as unequal as ours, organizing unions and restoring collective bargaining is one of the most important ways to fight poverty and inequality.

Several of the country's most prominent labor groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. violated federal election laws by holding meetings with employees in which managers discussed the impact of electing Democrats on legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize companies, including Wal-Mart. The labor groups are asking the Federal Election Commission to determine whether the company "made prohibited corporate expenditures" by organizing meetings across the country to warn employees that a Democratic president would back legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which the company opposes. The groups say such statements amount to advocating the defeat of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the November election.

The House on Wednesday narrowly defeated a plan to provide added unemployment aid for Americans whose benefits are running out after Republicans, bolstered by a White House veto threat, opposed the measure. As part of an escalating Congressional fight over economic issues, a Democratic plan to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to Americans out of jobs — or another 26 weeks in states where unemployment exceeds 6 percent — fell 3 votes short of approval in a 279-to-144 vote. A two-thirds majority was required under the rules Democrats used to rush the measure to the floor.

Fort Drum, a bleak U.S. Army base in upstate New York, is a test case for how the military is handling a looming mental health crisis. The military and its critics agree on one thing -- there are not enough therapists to treat all the soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan traumatized by the experience.A report by advocacy group Veterans for America said the mental healthcare system at Fort Drum was not meeting the demands placed on it and had prepared inadequately for the return of more than 3,500 soldiers from Iraq late last year.