Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Labor unions and free association
Labor unions and free association
Jan 12, 2026 8:00 PM

The Service Employees International Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have broken away from the plaining that the federation has focused too much on political activism in the face of declining union membership and influence.

Dr. Charles Baird was a featured guest on yesterday’s edition of Kresta in the Afternoon on Ave Maria Radio, discussing Catholic perspectives on unionism and whether the modern American labor union movement patible with church teachings. Dr. Baird is Chair of the Department of Economics at California State University and the author of Liberating Labor: A Christian Economist’s Case for Voluntary Unionism (part of Acton’s Christian Social Teaching series and available for purchase in the Acton Bookshoppe). To listen to the interview, click here

Previous Article：Seeing the trees, missing the forest Next Article：CAFTA/Culture of Life: enemies?
Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
The self-defeating nature of sin taxes
Rev. Ben Johnson, senior editor at the Acton Institute, writes atCapXthat bishopsshould refrain from encouraging sin taxes. Recently in Poland, a letter written by bishop Tadeusz Bronakowski was read aloud in many Catholic churches, stating that the “state has a ‘responsibility’ to pass laws limiting alcohol’s ‘physical and economic availability,’ and to back them up with ‘ruthless enforcement.'” Johnson, however, asks bishops to take a look at historical records regarding sin taxes and reconsider their stance, because past and present...
Entry, exit, and supply curves: Constant costs
Note: This is post #45 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Industries that have a flat supply curve are called “constant cost” industries. An example is domain name registration: to increase the supply of domain names, we must only increase the inputs by a negligible amount. That is why even as the Internet expands so rapidly, says Alex Tabarrok, it still costs only about six or seven dollars to register a new domain name. By showing you how...
Kuyper on Christians’ twofold citizenship
In 1887, Abraham Kuyper helped lead a secession from the mainline Reformed church in the Netherlands. A few months later at the Free University in Amsterdam, Kuyper delivered a speech entitled “Twofold Fatherland,” in which he describes the earthly and heavenly citizenship of Christians, and how these realities impact our understanding of our responsibility and identity in this world. Given the rise of various forms of nationalism, populism, and tyranny around the world today, I can think of no message...
5 facts about the alt-right
A rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend ended in violence and domestic terrorism, as white nationalist groups clashed with counter-protestors. The Unite the Right rally was intended, as co-promoter Matthew Heimbach explains, to unite the alt-right around the “14 words”: “We must secure the existence of our people and the future for white children’—as our primary motivating factor.” The objectives of the alt-right movement are antithetical to the mission, values, and principles of the Acton Institute and other like-minded...
Value investing: Restoring ownership and ethics to investment
In today’s global economy, it can be easy to feel like robotic worker bees or petty consumer fleas in a big, blurry economic order. The feeling is understandable. Value creation, even at its largest margins, is increasingly difficult to spot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Size, scale, and efficiency all have significant perks. But while we should be wary of the modern to temptation to blindly castigate “big business” only because of its bigness, we should also...
Brexit’s £1.5 billion boon to charities
In the United States, it is considered scandalous when a partisan public official tries to deny a charity its tax-exempt status. But bination of EU and UK law forces British charities to pay £1.5 billion in taxes to the government every year – something a leading charitable coalition says that Brexit could change. A “clean Brexit,” the group says, could unleash the power of private philanthropy and create tens of thousands of jobs among nonprofits alone. EU regulations do not...
Betsy DeVos to speak at Acton Institute’s 27th Annual Dinner
Mark your calendars and register nowfor Acton Institute’s 27th annual dinner on October 18, held at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This year’s annual dinner will feature remarks from Acton Institute president Rev. Robert Sirico and special guest Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education. DeVos is a Grand Rapids native and a leading innovator and advocate in education. Before her confirmation, DeVos was a member of Acton Institute’s board of directors from 1995 to 2005, and...
A call to reaffirm the rational roots of Western identity
In an article published at the Witherspoon Institute,Samuel Greggargues for the reaffirmation of Western civilization, its roots and its plishments. We need not be “faithful Jews or orthodox Christians to affirm Western civilization’s achievements,” but it is vital that we realize “these faiths’ indispensable role in the growth of Western culture,” he writes. Gregg explains that today there seems to be a trend to disparage the West, evidenced by current terrorism and even by attitudes in the West, “studiously ignoring...
Thoughts on Christians and race-identity issues
Here’s the deal, short and straight to the point, in light of the events in Charlottesville: Christians should not be within ten miles of this race-identity stuff. Something like “white nationalism” cannot be reconciled with the Gospel’s leap across racial and national barriers. I’ve always told students that you can be in favor of your country enforcing its borders, but that you should never be one of those folks yelling to keep the Mexicans out or something along those lines....
The J. Wellington Wimpy crony capitalist policy
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,” was a catchphrase made famous by J. Wellington Wimpy, a character in ic strip Popeye. But it also describes, with slight modification, the attitude of crony panies to American taxpayers: “I’ll begrudgingly pay you in the future for services provided today.” A couple of week’s ago I wrote about the greatest crony capitalist deal in Wisconsin history. The state offered to Foxconn various government-granted privileges, a mix of different types reportedly...
Related Classification
RELIGION & LIBERTY
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
About
Terms and Conditions Privacy policy Cookie Settings Contact Us
Services
Login register
mreligion RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE RELIGION & LIBERTY
Links
zpostcode Recruit weather mreligion Yellowpages sport constellation shopping name game directory literature Word tour furnish Lottery tftnews lyrics News digital car dir Edu Finance
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved