Popes' Encyclicals Speak to Rights of Unions

Being the Easter season, how appropriate that we look to our Church and its leaders for guidance on our ongoing dispute regarding lay teachers' right to form and be represented by a union of their choice. Besides those excerpts that can be found in earlier postings on this blog, here are a few additional items for thought and reflection.

"For to enter into a [workmen's association]...is a natural right of man; and the State must protect natural rights, not destroy them; and if it forbids its citizens to form associations, it contradicts the very principle of its own existence..."

Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, para 86

"It belongs to the bishops to permit Catholic workingmen to join [neutral trade unions not associated with the Church] where they judge that circumstances make it necessary and there appears no danger for religion..."

Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, para. 35

"The important role of the union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good."

Pope Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens, para. 14

"Among the basic rights of the human person must be counted the rights of freely founding labor unions. These unions should be truly able to represent the workers and to contribute to the proper arrangement of economic life. Another such right is that of taking part freely in the activity of these unions without risk of reprisal.'

Pope Paul VI, Gaudium et Spes, para. 68

"It was always hoped that, thanks to the work of their unions, workers will not only have more, but above all be more: in other words, that they will realize their humanity more fully in every respect."

Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, para. 20

"We vehemently oppose violations of the freedom to associate, wherever they occur, for they are an intolerable attack on social solidarity."

US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, para. 105

"The purpose of unions is not simply to defend the existing wages and prerogatives of the fraction of workers that belong to them, but also to enable workers to make a positive and creative contribution to the firm, the community, and the larger society in an organized and cooperative way."

US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, para. 304