Catholic bishops strongly back unions in Labor Day statement
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Saying the nation’s economy is failing
workers, the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops is strongly backing
unions and the right to organize, as one
way to help workers out of the eco-
nomic turmoil.
The pro-union language, drawing on
120 years of Catholic social teaching, is
a large segment of the bishops’ 6-page
3,400-word Labor Day message.
Human Costs And Moral Chal-
lenges Of A Broken Economy, by
Bishop Stephen Blaire, chair of the
conference’s Committee on Domestic
Justice and Human Development, reit-
erates the need for unions to protect
workers.
But like other pro-worker state-
ments from the bishops, it can be disre-
garded by Catholic laypeople — or
even by fellow bishops.
The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse,
N.Y., is “reorganizing” the city’s
Catholic cemetery system. Its plan
would abolish the separate non-profit
firm that runs the city’s one unionized
Catholic cemetery, St. Mary’s-St.
Agnes, throwing six veteran workers,
members of a Service Employees local,
out of jobs at the end of August.
And the head of the diocese in St.
Louis has long opposed the Carpenters’
efforts to organize teachers and staff in
the diocesan schools.
Catholic-run businesses have also
ignored or defied the church’s pro-
worker teachings. The board of one of
the nation’s leading Catholic hospital
SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
systems, Chicago-based Resurrection
Health Care, still refuses to obey labor
law in its campaign to prevent AF-
SCME from organizing workers there.
Nevertheless, the bishops declare
unions are vital to protecting workers.
“The church consistently supported
efforts of workers to join together to de-
fend their rights and protect their dig-
nity,” the bishops said.
Pope Benedict XVI recently reaf-
firmed that social teaching, saying
“promotion of workers’ associations
that can defend their rights must there-
fore be honored today even more than
in the past.
“There have been some efforts, as
part of broader disputes over state
budgets, to remove or restrict the rights
of workers to collective bargaining as
well as limit the role of unions in the
workplace. Bishops in Wisconsin,
Ohio, and elsewhere have faithfully
and carefully outlined Catholic teach-
ing on worker rights, suggesting that
difficult times should not lead us to ig-
nore the legitimate rights of workers.
Without endorsing every tactic of
unions or every outcome of collective
bargaining, the church affirms the
rights of workers in public and private
employment to choose to come to-
gether to form and join unions, to bar-
gain collectively, and to have an effec-
tive voice in the workplace,” the
bishops stated.
“Unions remain an effective instru-
ment to protect the dignity of work and
the rights of workers. At their best,
unions are important not just for the
economic protections and benefits for
their members, but especially for the
voice and participation they can offer
to workers. They are important not only
for what they achieve for their mem-
bers, but also for the contributions they
make to the whole society,” they said.
“The teaching that workers have the
right to choose freely to form and be-
long to unions and other associations
without interference or intimidation is
strong and consistent” in Catholicism,
the bishops reiterated.
But the bishops faulted unions on
three counts. Two were economic:
“Failure to avoid the temptations of ex-
cessive partisanship, and pursuit of
only narrow interests. Workers and
their unions, as well as employers and
their businesses, all have responsibility
to seek the common good, not just their
own economic, political, or institu-
tional interests,” the bishops’ statement
said.
In the third, bishops said “some
unions in some places have taken pub-
lic positions the church cannot support,
which many union members may not
support, and which have little to do
with work or workers’ rights.”
Leaders of the church and the labor
movement cannot avoid these differ-
ences, but should address them in prin-
cipled, respectful and candid dialogue,”
the bishops conceded. “This should
not keep us from working on our own
and together to advance common pri-
orities of protecting worker rights, eco-
nomic and social justice, overcoming
poverty, and creating economic oppor-
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
tunity for all.”
In general, the bishops called the
economy a disaster for almost every-
one, and blasted the widening inequal-
ity of wealth. They also said economic
trends are eating into political life,
which in turn is increasingly polarized
— a condition they condemned.
“A fundamental task is to create
jobs and spur economic growth. Decent
jobs at decent wages are the best path
out of poverty, and restoring growth is a
powerful way to reduce deficits. ... A
just framework for future budgets can-
not rely on disproportionate cuts in es-
sential services to poor persons. It re-
quires shared sacrifice by all, including
raising adequate revenues, eliminating
unnecessary military and other spend-
ing, and addressing the long-term costs
of health insurance and retirement pro-
grams fairly ... A moral measure of this
budget debate is not which party wins
or which powerful interests prevail, but
rather how those who are jobless, hun-
gry, homeless, or poor are treated.”
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