Why organized labor is (still) a Catholic cause

At a time when labor unions are weak, Catholics still have a place in the labor movement, said a priest who emphasized the Church's historic efforts to teach the rights of labor and train workers to organize.

Washington D.C., (CNA) - At a time when labor unions are weak, Catholics still have a place in the labor movement, said a priest who emphasized the Church's historic efforts to teach the rights of labor and train workers to organize.

"On the local and state level, Catholics are a major part of the labor movement. They took to heart our Catholic social teaching, and tried to implement it in their workplace," Father Sinclair Oubre, the spiritual moderator of the Catholic Labor Network, told CNA.

However, he said, there is sometimes a disconnect between Catholics and support for organized labor.

"Like in so many areas of our faith, the heresy of radical individualism, a lack of knowledge about why unions were formed, and a general ignorance of what options workers have, have led to many Catholics to either not realize that the Church has favored workers' associations, or that the Church even has a teaching that has to do with the workplace."

Union membership peaked at 28 percent of the American workforce in 1954. According to 2017 figures, about 34 percent of public sector employees are unionized, but under 7 percent of private-sector employees are, CBS Moneywatch reports.

Unions continue to enjoy strong approval in the U.S., with 62 percent of respondents telling a recent Gallup survey they support organized labor.

But union support among some Catholics has waned, in part due to labor unions' political support for legal abortion and pro-abortion rights political candidates, among other issues.

For Fr. Oubre, this shows the need for more faithful Catholics to join a union, not withdraw.

"The fact that many of the cultural war issues have been embraced by labor unions is a concern to me," he said. "However, the Church and Labor have been here before."

"From the 1930s to the 1950s, there was a real effort by communists to take over the U.S. unions, and in some cases, they were successful. Instead of saying, 'Catholics can't join unions because they are communists,' which was not accurate because many were not, the Church instead set up labor schools by the hundreds in parish basements."

"The Church taught workers their rights under the law and Robert's Rules of Order. It encouraged Catholic workers to run for union office, and bring their Catholic social teachings to bear," the priest said. "This was very successful, and led to the purging of many communists from the union ranks."

Catholics have historically played a major role in the U.S. labor movement, as evidenced by several prominent Catholics who have headed the AFL-CIO, the largest union federation in the U.S.

Oubre said unions are a place for Christian evangelization and contribution.

"We cannot write off whole groups of people because part of their agenda is not in line with Catholic teaching," he said. "Rather, we are called to engage these groups, be active in the organizations, and like in the past, direct these organizations in ways that respect God's truth."

The record of Catholic social teaching also backs labor and the right of workers to organize, Oubre said.

In the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII recognized that economic changes introduced new relationships between those who had wealth and those who did not.

"As cities grew, and manufacturing and industry developed, the relationship of responsibility that has existed in the past between the landowner and the peasant no longer existed," Oubre explained.

"Pope Leo XIII recognized the natural right of people to associate with each other, whether these were religious associations or work guilds, he endorsed the importance of collective bargaining to promote the common good, and recognized the unequal contractual relationship between the worker and the employer."

The labor market meant that workers were negotiating not only with an employer, but competing against all the other workers seeking the same job. Leo XIII said these pressures to accept employment at ever-lowering wages could lead workers "to agree to employment terms that did not supply the basic needs for a dignified family life."

The labor-focused traditions of Catholic social teaching have continued especially through the work of Popes Pius XI, John XXIII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

The Second Vatican Council's apostolic constitution Gaudium et Spes names the right to found unions for working people as "among the basic rights of the human person." These unions "should be able truly to represent them and to contribute to the organizing of economic life in the right way." These rights include the freedom to take part in union activity "without risk of reprisal."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' 1986 pastoral letter "Economic Justice for All" also addresses the place of labor in Catholic thought and action.

In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Janus v. AFSCME struck down a 1997 Illinois law that required non-union public employees to pay fees to public sector unions for collective bargaining.

A U.S. bishops' conference spokesperson said the decision threatened to mandate a "Right-to-Work" environment in government employment in a way that undermines the ability of workers to organize.

Oubre said Catholic union backers object to such a legal principle "because it works against the principle of solidarity and the right of association."

"'Right to Work' laws have their primary intention of weakening the organizing power of unions, and allow people to receive the benefit the union, without taking on the responsibility of being part of the union," he said.

In Oubre's view, a union-friendly legal environment is critical.

"One can pass laws that promote workers ability to organize together, or to discourage it," he said.

He noted the proposals for a "card check" unionization effort, in which an employer must recognize a union if a majority of workers express a desire for a union using signed cards.

Obure said this effort now faces legal obstacles and simply "begins a long process where union avoidance experts are brought in, one-on-one meetings take place with workers, sometimes the leaders are fired, and every effort is made to dishearten the workers."

"When the election comes around, the will of the workers has been crushed," he said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issues annual Labor Day statements which continue "the long tradition of support for workers' right to organize and join unions," Oubre said.

In 2018, the statement stressed the importance of just wages for workers, especially for those who have difficulty securing basic needs. It also discussed problems of income inequality between the wealthy and the poor, as well as between ethnic groups and between the sexes.

"This Labor Day, let us all commit ourselves to personal conversion of heart and mind and stand in solidarity with workers by advocating for just wages, and in so doing, 'bring glad tidings to the poor'," the bishops' message concluded.

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