By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
In response to the dispute between union workers and state lawmakers in Wisconsin, the state’s Catholic bishops are calling on officials to carefully evaluate the situation and to remember their “moral obligation” to protect workers’ rights.
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is reporting that Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee and other bishops around the state have not spoken in direct opposition to a bill proposed by Gov. Scott Walker which slashes funding for benefits and limits the number of things workers can bargain over, but they did address a letter to state lawmakers in which they stressed the importance of protecting worker’s rights in light of the Church’s social doctrine.
The Feb. 16 letter, addressed to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, invoked a century of papal encyclicals, from Pope Leo XIII in 1891 through Benedict XVI in 2009, that have upheld the rights of workers to organize and bargain with management. Archbishop Listecki acknowledged that “the Church is well aware that difficult economic times call for hard choices,” but said the current situation does “not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers.”
He went on to quote Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, which criticizes governments for limiting the freedom or negotiating capacity of unions. He also referenced the late Pope John Paul II’s observation that unions remain a “constructive factor” of social order and solidarity.
“The bishops are very careful – it’s a balanced statement,” said John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference to CNA. “Because you support workers or the right of unions to assert and affirm their interests, (it) doesn’t follow that every claim made by workers is valid.”
He also said that unions, “just like anybody else, have to consider the good and make sacrifices” but called it a “mistake” to use hard times as a reason for taking actions that will ultimately result in marginalizing unions.
“The bishops are merely reminding everybody of the teaching of the Church, over the last century or more, of the dignity of work and the appropriate place for unions without giving them carte blanche to have everything they want,” Huebscher said.
He went on to say that legislators should use critical and “prudential” judgement in the matter that has been raging ever since the bill came to the floor of the state house last week and Democratic lawmakers fled the state in order to avoid a vote.
“Does the bill serve to marginalize unions? Does this serve to drastically reduce the ability of worker to articulate and protect their interests? Those are fair questions to engage,” Huebscher said.
He expressed gratitude that the protests have remained peaceful thus far, and told CNA that bishops in the state are urging people “to remain civil, talk to each other, and keep the common good in mind.”
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