Catholic scholars try to bolster unions

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/06/14/catholic_scholars_try_to_bolster_unions/


By Rich Barlow
June 14, 2008

The collision of an election year with economic distress - a housing slump, soaring gas prices, shaky corporate-sponsored health and pension plans, among other factors - has made the state of the American worker a campaign issue. One hundred and twelve years ago, in an era of similar uncertainty, William Jennings Bryan, fueled partly by his devout Protestant faith, ran for president on a prounion platform.
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Since then, unions have ascended and waned. Now, a group of Catholic academics and clergy wants to reinvigorate them and its members, citing their church's teaching as support.

Founded by a religion professor at Manhattan College in New York, Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice has several Massachusetts residents on its steering committee. The group is strictly nonpartisan, though individual members are free to politick on their own. Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, supports Barack Obama, for example, and David O'Brien, a Holy Cross historian, is on a Catholic advisory committee to the Illinois senator.

"We need to think about how to rebuild an opportunity for people to make a living wage," said Kochan, a Chestnut Hill resident who worships at St. Ignatius Parish there, explaining the new group's motivation.

Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice promises to research and publish the church's teachings on economic justice, while advocating for union organizing in specific cases. For example, the group's founder attended a January vigil to support a union drive at a California hospital run by Catholic nuns. Catholic Scholars' steering committee also has endorsed a bill in Congress that would make it easier for workers to unionize and stiffen penalties on companies that violate rights.

The scholars are most concerned about companies illegally firing or disciplining workers for starting or joining unions. In 2005, the federal government ordered back pay or reinstatement to more than 33,000 workers for such union activity, according to Catholic Scholars.

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