Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Rev. Sirico Commentary on Catholics and Unions in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Rev. Sirico Commentary on Catholics and Unions in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jul 1, 2025 1:32 PM

In today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Acton President and co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico publishes a new opinion piece that looks at “the protests in Wisconsin against proposed changes in collective bargaining for public-sector unions” through the lens of Catholic social thought:

Catholic teaching’s pro-union bias

By the Rev. Robert A. Sirico

There is a long-standing bias in Catholic social teaching toward unions, and this dates from the long history of labor struggles for fair wages and safe working conditions. There is a romance associated with this history, and it is bound up with strong moral concerns. And it is not just historical. The Catholic Church played a heroic role in the fall of Communism in Poland through its influence on labor unions that were striking against oppression, which is to say state coercion.

Pope John Paul II, who knew something about the social role of labor unions, also warned about their drift into politics. In his encyclical Laborem Exercens, he wrote: “Unions do not have the character of political parties struggling for power; they should not be subjected to the decision of political parties or have too close links with them.”

The reality with all public affairs, however, is that conditions change. Just because something is called a union does not make it automatically good and moral. Essential considerations of justice and freedom must be in place. Generally speaking, the long history of unions has been bound up with the right of free association. So far as I can tell, the current practice of public-sector union organizing has little or nothing to do with this principle, so it is right and proper that Catholic social teaching should also recognize this.

This es to mind because of the protests in Wisconsin against proposed changes in collective bargaining for public-sector unions. But the driving force behind the budgetary move has nothing to do with human rights, unless one considers the rights of Wisconsin taxpayers.

The alarming reality of state and federal overspending and debt is something that cannot be denied. Prudent and necessary cuts must be made in the Wisconsin budget, and state employees must be part of that plan. How do public-sector unions fit into this? It is nearly impossible for anyone to work for the public sector without being a member, and unions collect dues, which operate like taxes for most everyone else.

This was not always the case. Public-sector unions emerged after World War II in the wake of the crack-up of many big-city political machines, and they were a convenient way for government employees to extract higher salaries and benefits at public expense.

What does this have to do with the freedom of association? Industrial unions have been on the decline for decades precisely because of the freedom of association. Organizing activity for years has shifted to the public sector, where union political contributions carry a lot of weight. Unions that remain strong are that way because they push against the freedom of association, denying alternatives to workers and taxpayers.

A one-time member of a Wisconsin union, Stephen J. Haessler, tells me: “My previous experience with agency shop as a former member of a WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Council) local affiliate is instructive. I opposed my dues monies going to endorse pro-choice political candidates, but my opinions and preferences did not matter because dues were automatically deducted from my pay whether I joined the union or not. This was a violation of the principle of the freedom of association.”

Here’s the question Catholics need to ask themselves: Are the unions I support of the same type that are idealized in Catholic social teaching? Or have they changed to the point where they are unions in name only but actually just political machines for coercing workers and extracting money through the political process?

The bias toward unions in Catholic social teaching is rooted in a perception that unions fulfill certain moral conditions. When they fail to do so, the application of moral teaching can change. There is no a priori reason to back every union demand and no reason for Catholics to feel under any doctrinal obligation to do so.

The Rev. Robert A. Sirico is president of the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich.

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
Yes, abortion is about race, but not in the way progressives think
Roe v. Wade has been overturned and bad arguments in defense of unrestricted abortion abound. What everyone needs now is a little history lesson. Read More… As I was watching a film with my son the other day, we began to hear chanting below us. We looked out the window and saw protesters marching in the streets shouting, “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! The white man has got to go!” The protesters were themselves white. The protest was in response to...
We know what women are. They don’t. Now what?
The Daily Wire’s new documentary offers disturbing realities but only one answer to a question that raises many more. What would a sequel look like? Read More… “Nature always tells us the truth, even if we don’t want to hear it.” So begins the latest cinematic offering from the Daily Wire,What Is a Woman? The documentary is stirring up controversy with its sarcastic cultural analysis and skillful showcasing of extreme social absurdity. Conservative mentator Matt Walsh’s dry style edic narration...
Supernatural thriller Stranger Things shows the all-too-human evil of communism
Season 4 of the Netflix mega-hit still focuses on the reality of supernatural evil, but has added a dose of natural evil as well. But where’s the supernatural good? Read More… The final installment of the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things was released on July 1. According to Variety, season 4’s first installment “of the Duffer Brothers’ hit sci-fi series was viewed for 287 million hours during the week of May 23–29, landing in the No. 1 position.” The...
Tony Sirico, 1942-2022
Requiescat in pace. Read More… Tony Sirico, the renowned actor and older brother of Acton Institute co-founder and president emeritus, Rev. Robert A. Sirico, passed away on July 8, 2022. He was 79 years old. Watch the livestream of the funeral of Tony Sirico on Wednesday, July 13, at 10:30am ET here: Sirico was best known for his role as “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieriin HBO’sThe Sopranos, for which he won twoScreen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in...
Do we really need another brand of conservatism?
In his new book, F.H. Buckley offers a vision of a “progressive conservatism” that sure sounds like the traditional Grand Old Party platform. Not that that’s a bad thing. Read More… Sisyphus was the first conservative, Claremont Review of Books editor William Voegeli wryly observes, because the lot of the conservative is one of short-lived, temporary victories. Conservatives certainly have no shortage of examples. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act didn’t even last 20 years, made obsolete by Obergefell v....
Twenty-five years after promising autonomy, China has turned Hong Kong into China
Xi Jinping’s recent victory lap in Hong Kong does not bode well for the future of civil rights and freedoms there, as the “one country, two systems” agreement made with Great Britain in 1997 appears irreparably broken. Read More… On January 1, 1997, Hong Kong, effectively seized by Great Britain in war a century before, reverted to Chinese rule. Only recently liberated from the madness of Mao Zedong’s rule, Beijing promised to preserve Hong Kong’s separate “system” for 50 years....
How Frederick Douglass found hope on the Fourth of July
On July 5, 1852, nearly a decade before the start of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass, a freed slave and statesman-abolitionist, offered a profound speech on seeing the Fourth of July through the eyes of a slave. The speech monly known as “What to a slave is the 4th of July?” — illuminates the drastic disconnect between ourfounding principles and the severe oppression of slavery that somehow managed to endure. While the specific evils in question have thankfully been abolished,...
An economist’s summer reading list
Between raging inflation and declining markets, consumers have much to worry about. What they shouldn’t worry about is whether there are answers at hand. Some new books provide hope. Read More… If you attended Acton University, you saw the treasure trove of books for sale. Several of those books made it onto both my credit card and my summer reading list. Even if you weren’t able to join us at AU, you can still find most of the books here....
Does The Godfather believe in America?
Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece shines a light on how attempts to subvert American institutions in the name of a higher, personal justice can fail calamitously. In the end, human nature will not be subverted. Read More… This month the Tribeca Film Festival celebrated the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Godfather, an important movie, a movie we at some point got in the habit of calling iconic, and we might remember it made stars of...
The ground is shifting under Francis Fukuyama’s feet
In his new book, the author of The End of History attempts to explain how liberalism is threatened by illiberal elements on the left and right. But flaws in his analysis almost guarantee that this is not the end of the discussion. Read More… In Liberalism and Its Discontents, Francis Fukuyama aims to defend liberal political ideas and institutions against rising and now entrenched detractors from the postliberal left and the right. As he notes, “liberalism is under severe threat...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved