Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A good Catholic cannot support Gov. Walker's plan. Discuss.
From the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:
The Magisterium recognizes the fundamental role played by labour unions, whose existence is connected with the right to form associations or unions to defend the vital interests of workers employed in the various professions. . . . Such organizations, while pursuing their specific purpose with regard to the common good, are a positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore an indispensable element of social life.
It may very well be the case that public employees' unions have been too late to recognize that fiscal reality requires significant concessions on their part, but can a requirement that those unions give up the bulk of their collective bargaining rights be reconciled with Church teaching? Or is Church teaching hopelessly outdated on this front?
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/02/a-good-catholic-cannot-support-gov-walkers-plan-discuss.html
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Rerum novarum discusses the need for "working men" associations, i.e. unions for workers presumably laborers in factories and the like. I am not sure that civil servants would fall into the category of "working men" and therefore be in need of protections from Capitalist exploitation.
Furthermore, the above statement acknowledges the good of unions but it does not state that collective bargaining is appropriate or required in each and every circumstance. Public service, where one is employed by the taxpayers, may be one such circumstance where collective bargaining is not required.
As an anecdote, the teachers at the Catholic high school I attended were exceptional in their quality and enjoyed their jobs despite the fact that they were not unionized made less than their public school counter-parts. Was this Catholic high school not following CST by not having a teacher's union? (I am not sure if the teachers there ever wanted to unionize)