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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
The contemporary American labor movement is in a state of crisis. Not only is the membership base at a low-point, but a host of negative factors and obstacles to growth present enormous challenges for its future viability. In the past, organized labor has been most effective when there was a strong alliance with the Catholic community. Since the middle of the twentieth century, however, this association has weakened, and in some cases has turned to opposition. The premise of this article is that a renewed church-labor alliance could provide needed assistance to reinvigorate the labor movement while also advancing the social concerns of the Catholic Church in this nation.
1 The percentage of American workers belonging to unions fell in 2000 to 13.5 percent, its lowest point in six decades. See Bureau of Labor Statistics, ftp://146.142.4.23/pub/news.relcase/union2.txt, January 2000. See also Neuman, George R. and Rissman, Ellen, “Where Have All the Union Members Gone?” Journal of Labor Economics 2 (April 1984); 175–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Troy, Leo, “Twilight for Organized Labor,” Journal of Labor Research 22/2 (Spring 2001): 245–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Clawson, Dan and Clawson, Marian, “What Has Happened to the U.S. Labor Movement? Union Decline and Renewal,” Annual Review of Sociology 24 (1999): 95–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Chaison, Gary N. and Rose, Joseph B., “The Macrodeterminants of Union Growth and Decline, in The State of the Unions, ed. Strauss, George, Gallager, Daniel G., and Fiorito, Jack (Madison, WI: Industrial Relations Research Association, 1991), 12–15, 30–31.Google Scholar A good collection of essays that examine various reasons for union decline as well as the future of private sector unions can be found in the Journal of Labor Research 22/2 (Spring 2001) and 22/3 (Summer 2001).
4 Higgins, George G. with Bole, William, Organized Labor and the Church (New York: Paulist, 1993), 149–90.Google Scholar See also Bennett, James T. and Kaufman, Bruce E., “The Future of Private Sector Unionism in the U.S.,” Journal of Labor Research 22/2 (Spring 2001): 227–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bennett, James T. and Taylor, Jason E., “Labor Unions: Victims of Their Political Success?” Journal of Labor Research 22/2 (Spring 2001): 264–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Bennett and Taylor provide a good historical review of unions' major goals and accomplishments.
5 In this essay, I use the terms “organized labor” or “labor” to mean the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a voluntary federation of labor unions currently composed of sixty-three unions representing about thirteen million members in the United States and Canada. The “labor movement” is generally considered a more encompassing term, including social activists, community and religious groups.
6 The exception was for the rights of women wage earners. The Program of Social Reconstruction, written by John A. Ryan, went even further than the encyclicals in their view of the male breadwinner and women's role as homemakers. The Program insisted that the number of women in industry be kept at a minimum and it encouraged employers to hire men rather than women who demanded equal pay for equal work.
7 Piehl, Mel, “American Catholics and Social Reform,” in Perspectives on the American Catholic Church 1789–1989, ed. Vicchio, Stephen J. and Geiger, Virginia (Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1989), 328.Google Scholar
8 For example, at the turn of the century with the massive immigration of Catholics from Europe, the Church was faced with the pastoral problem of how to settle and assimilate them. Also, at times some of the hierarchy avoided collaboration with labor and tended to prefer associations with business leaders. See O'Brien, David, Public Catholicism (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996), 133, 137Google Scholar; Betten, Neil, Catholic Activism and the Industrial Worker (Gainesville, FL: University Presses of Florida, 1976) 13, 146–148.Google Scholar
9 Higgins, , Organized Labor and the Church, 54–58.Google Scholar
10 There are five main reasons that account for the loosening of ties between the Church and organized labor. First, the years following World War II brought new prosperity to the United States, especially to the working classes that included the majority of Catholics. As Catholics moved up the economic ladder they had less interest in, and even some antagonism toward, laborunions. Second, from the perspective of the Catholic hierarchy, unions had achieved their right to organize. Furthermore, organized labor was less interested in the Church's support for labor issues. Third, there was an ethical crisis of corrupt leadership within organized labor and scandals regularly reported in the news. Many Americans lost confidence in union leaders and in the process of collective bargaining. Fourth, with the tumult of the 1960s came a new cynicism toward unions. Labor leaders were perceived by many social activists as conservative and out of touch with the issues of the times such as the anti-war struggle. Fifth, new problems and new issues demanded the Church's attention in the 1950s and 1960s, especially the threat of communism and the future of world freedom, and the race problem. See Higgins, , Organized Labor and the Church, 62–71.Google Scholar
11 For example, the Catholic community was involved in the disputes between the United Farm Workers and the Teamsters Union (in support of the Farm Workers); the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers' Union and the J. P. Stevens Company (in support of the union), and helped to bring about an agreement between Catholic Healthcare West and the Service Employees International Union. Recent efforts of the AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney, and the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice indicate a movement toward strengthening the connection between organized labor and religious communities.
12 I am indebted to Douglas Sturm for the insight into this view of labor (“The Labor Question and Energetic Democracy: On Moving toward a Larger Selfhood,” Soundings 82/3–4 [Fall/Winter 1999]: 425–33, at 427).
13 The presumption is that at the level of fundamental values and general principles there can be some agreement among people of diverse cultures, ideologies, religions, etc. As we proceed to attempt to apply these values in concrete situations and within diverse social, political, and economic context however, disagreements are likely to occur. It is when we muddle these levels of analysis that the postmodern critique of moral consensus is legitimized.
14 Sweeney, John J., “Afterword,” in A New Labor Movement for the New Century, ed. Mantsios, Gregory (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998), 330–33.Google Scholar
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17 Higgins, 157–62.
18 Yates, Michael D., Why Unions Matter (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998), 137–38.Google Scholar
19 Chaison, and Rose, , “The Macrodeterminants of Union Growth and Decline,” 22.Google Scholar It is generally more difficult to oppose and escape unionism in Canada because labor laws are stronger and more vigorously enforced. Also, the Canadian labor boards have authority to discourage and counter employer misconduct as well as to impose first collective agreements on obstructionist employers.
20 Sweeney, 333.
21 Research suggests that unions in which women are highly represented are more likely to succeed in achieving a broad range of family supported programs such as child and elder care provisions, flextime and job sharing. This is not to suggest that childcare and other family-related issues are of concern only to women, but to acknowledge that in the U.S. and even more so in other parts of the world, the role of caretaker remains largely in the domain of women, whether working in the marketplace or in the home. See Cook, Alice H., “Women and Minorities,” in The State of the Unions, 237, 252.Google Scholar
22 Bernard, Elaine, “Creating Democratic Communities in the Workplace,” in A New Labor Movement for the New Century, 4.Google Scholar
23 Kohler, Thomas, “Civic Virtue at Work: Unions as Seedbeds of the Civic Virtues,” in Seedbeds of Virtue, ed. Glendon, Mary Ann and Blankenhorn, David (New York: Madison Books, 1995) 150–53.Google Scholar
24 Sweeney, 334.
25 Ibid.
26 Mantsios, Gregory, “International Affairs,” in A New Labor Movement for a New Century, 273–74.Google Scholar On the negative impact of globalization on labor, see articles in this text by Shailor, Barbara and Kourpias, George, “Developing and Enforcing International Labor Standards,” 273–77Google Scholar; Banks, Andy, “New Voices, New Internationalism,” 286–303Google Scholar; and Figueroa, Hector J., “International Labor Solidarity In An Era of Global Competition,” 304–19.Google Scholar
27 Quoted in Greenhouse, Steven, “Trade Pacts Must Safeguard Workers, Union Chief Says,” The New York Times, 20 September 1999, http://partners.nytimes.com.Google Scholar
28 Sandel, Michael J., Democracy's Discontent: America In Search of a Public Philosophy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), 198–200.Google Scholar On the history of the “business” type of unionism that has characterized the labor movement since its inception, see also Dulles, Rhea Foster, Labor in America: A History (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1966), 185–88Google Scholar; and Hoxie, Robert Franklin, Trade Unionism in the United States (New York: Russell & Russell, 1966), 46.Google Scholar
29 Moody, Kim, An Injury To All: The Decline of American Unionism (New York: Verso, 1988), 15.Google Scholar Moody points out the abandonment of the early social unionism of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in favor a modern version of business unionism.
30 Wheeler, Hoyt N. and McClendon, John A., “The Individual Decision to Unionize,” in The State of the Unions 50–59.Google Scholar
31 Feuille, Peter, “Unions as Antagonists, not Partners,” in The State of the Unions 90–91.Google Scholar
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33 Landesman, Charles, “The Union Movement and the Right to Organize,” in Moral Rights In The Workplace, 153–58.Google Scholar
34 Ibid., 153–54. Landesman draws from Friedman, Milton, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), 120.Google Scholar See also Green, Max, Epitaph for American Labor (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1996).Google Scholar For a comprehensive study of union power, see Brown, Henry Phelps, The Origins of Union Power (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983).Google Scholar
35 Sayers, Dorothy L., “Why Work?” in Creed or Chaos? (London: Methuen, 1947), 46.Google Scholar
36 Ibid., 53.
37 We could view human labor through other mysteries of faith such as the cross and redemption of Jesus Christ. In this essay, I focus on the insights of the creation story, which is the primary symbol that informs the theology of human labor in John Paul II's Laborem Exercens.
38 Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, nos. 34, 67.Google Scholar Unless otherwise specified, all citations are from the magisterial documents in Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage, ed. O'Brien, David J. and Shannon, Thomas A. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992).Google Scholar
39 Paul, Pope John II, Laborem Exercens, no. 9.Google Scholar
40 Although Laborem Exercens does not actually use the terms “co-creation” or “co-creator,” John Paul II makes it clear that the divine action of creativity and human work are dynamically interrelated (esp. nos. 10, 15, 25). For a good collection of critical essays on the co-creationist theme, see Co-Creation and Capitalism: John Paul II's Laborem Exercens, ed. Houck, John W. and Williams, Oliver F. (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1983), 42–58.Google Scholar
41 Schall, James V., “On Imitating the Creator,” in Papal Economics, ed. Lawler, Philip F. (Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation, 1982), 20.Google Scholar
42 This is what John Paul II means by the primacy of the subjective over objective dimensions of labor. There are three aspects to the personal character of labor. 1) Work is a human good and an avenue for personal growth. 2) It is necessary for human sustenance and well-being. 3) It is a means by which individuals can contribute to the common good. Generally, the objective character of work encompasses those objects produced by labor–products, services, production costs, technology, etc.
43 Laborem Exercens, no. 25.
44 Hollenbach, David, Justice, Peace, & Human Rights: American Catholic Social Ethics in a Pluralistic Context (New York: Crossroad, 1988), 47–48 at 45.Google Scholar Hollenbach points out that Laborem Exercens' treatment of human work based primarily on the creationist theme is, in itself, incomplete because it relies almost exclusively on passages that can be traced to the Priestly source and neglects the Yahwist account. The Priestly source links the positive valuation of human creativity with the religious developments taking place in response to the author's social-historical context. The Yahwist theology, on the other hand, is more attuned to the ambiguities of human creativity and work, and it is much less optimistic about the ability of human beings to form bonds of solidarity and to achieve harmonious cultural and societal integration.
45 Stories told by people who are employed in mundane and seemingly unrewarding jobs testify to the transformative experience of work. See Newman, Kathryn S., No Shame In My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City (New York: Knopf, 1999).Google Scholar
46 National Council of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, no. 104.Google Scholar
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51 Ibid., no. 20.
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56 Bernard, , “Creating Democratic Communities in the Workplace,” 8–9.Google Scholar
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73 The author wishes to thank the Association of Theological Schools for supporting the research and writing of this essay with a Lilly Theological Research Grant. Gratitude is also extended to St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore MD for providing research assistance, especially with the help of Thomas Servatius and Matthew Frisoni.