it is now more than a century that the Catholic Church has been on record supporting the notion that unionism, and the collective bargaining that goes with it, are basic rights which, in modern capitalist societies, are often the only protection workers have against corporate power.
Here is what Catholics need to know about this teaching, which has been established and developed by five different popes, as well as by the US Catholic Conference of Bishops:
1.Unions are indispensable in pursuing the common good of all.
2.Unions are rooted in the right to free association –that is, the right to unite with others to protect common interests.
3.Unions foster solidarity through participation and collaboration.
4.Unions have a duty to seek cooperative relationships with employers.
None of this teaching justifies union corruption; none of it justifies the failure of unions to seek the common good of all; none of it justifies intransigence or an unwillingness to bargain. When unions fail, like any other human organization, they must be reformed.
But challenging them to fulfill their duties cannot include revoking their rights. That is why Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said the following in a recent public letter to the Archbishop of Milwaukee:
These are not just political conflicts or economic choices; they are moral choices with enormous human dimensions…The debates over worker representation and collective bargaining are not simply matters of ideology or power, but involve principles of justice, participation and how workers can have a voice in the workplace and economy.
No surprise then that the Archbishop of Milwaukee himself, Jerome E. Listecki, acting as president of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference released the following statement [emphasis mine]:
The Church is well aware that difficult economic times call for hard choices and financial responsibility to further the common good…But hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers. As Pope Benedict wrote in his 2009 encyclical, Caritas in Veritate: “Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine…for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past…”
Perhaps the strongest statement applicable to the current situation was made by the US Bishops in their 1986 pastoral letter “Economic Justice for All”:
The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions…No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself.
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