Catholics and the Unions
George Weigel, who has written the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II--and is the grandson of unionized steelworkers--writing for InsideCatholic.com:
Judging by the impassioned commentary from some Catholic quarters during recent confrontations between unionized public-sector workers and state governments, you'd think we were back in 1919, with the Church defending the rights of wage slaves laboring in sweat shops under draconian working conditions. That would hardly seem to be the circumstances of, say, unionized American public school teachers who make handsome salaries with generous health and pension benefits, work for nine months of the year, and are virtually impossible to fire even if they commit felonies. I don't think those were the kinds of workers Pope Leo XIII had in mind in Rerum Novarum, or Pope John Paul II in Laborem Exercens....
Tens of thousands of inner-city children are being denied a quality education today because of the intransigence of the teachers' unions in conceding the effectiveness -- and moral imperative -- of voucher programs that allow underprivileged and at-risk kids to get the kind of decent, disciplined education that is unavailable in too many government-run schools: not because of lack of funding, and not because government schools "have to take everyone," but because of union rules that protect failed teachers, reward incompetence, and make it virtually impossible for dedicated teachers to conduct the kind of classrooms that work. This is, in a word, selfishness -- cruel selfishness. It ill befits Catholic activists and commentators to support it.
American bishops, please print and memorize.
Hat tip to Stephen Schmalhofer.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Catholics and the Unions
It's the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire this year. I'm waiting for the public sector unions to attempt to spin some type of connection to that tragedy. This knee jerk approval of any union stance is just more of the social justice kick the Church has been on for a while. It's certainly not helping them fill the pews on Sunday.
Jun '10
Re: Catholics and the Unions
You can love public-sector teacher unions, or you can love disadvantaged children, but you can't love both at the same time.
A counter-protest sign in Madison: "Don't make me work till age 70 so that public union members can retire at 50."
Feb '11
Re: Catholics and the Unions
"Tens of thousands of inner-city children are being denied a quality education today because of the intransigence of the teachers' unions"...the teachers' unions are a big part of the problem, also plenty of other villains, including unaccountable school administrators and low-intellectual-quality teachers' colleges and their idiot "experts." Every single one of these obstacles to good education is protected by the Democratic Party.
It's been said "If you're not a liberal before 30, you have no heart...if you're not a conservative after 30, you have no head." But those on the Left today demonstrate a clear absence of *both* heart and head.
Feb '11
Re: Catholics and the Unions
Lewis E Lawes, who was Warden of Sing Sing prison in the 1920s and 1930s, wrote an interesting book titled "20,000 years in Sing Sing." The number 20,000 refers to the aggregate lengths of the sentences of all the prisoners in this facility at a particular time. Lawes:
"Within such cycles worlds are born, die, and are reborn. That span has witnessed the evolution of the intelligence of mortal man. And we know that twenty thousand years have seen nations run their courses, perish, and give way to their successors. Twenty thousand years in my keeping. What will they evolve?"
Following Lawes, we could compute the aggregate timespan required to be spent in K-12 schools by their inhabitants. The number is approximately 600,000,000 years.
Of course, a school isn't the same thing as a prison. ALL of the six hundred million years isn't wasted...maybe only about half of it??
I wonder how many public school administrators ever think about their responsibility to their charges in the same thoughtful manner that Lawes applied to his prisoners.
Mar '11
Re: Catholics and the Unions
Peter, thanks for hitting these themes regarding actual Catholic teaching concerning social justice. I can almost hear you thumping the table. With respect to Bishop's Conferences in the U.S. and here in Australia especially, the tide is turning. There is hope.
Mar '11
Re: Catholics and the Unions
Peter, thanks for hitting these themes regarding actual Catholic teaching concerning social justice. I can almost hear you thumping the table. With respect to Bishop's Conferences in the U.S. and here in Australia especially, the tide is turning. There is hope.