Churches all agree!

 

 

 

Churches agree that unions are good!National Council of Churches (Representing 33 million Protestants)

Whereas, the churches, in the statement of 'The Social Ideals' have stood for 'The right of employees and employers alike to organize for collective bargaining'. Resolved: that the National Council record its conviction that not only has labor a right to organize, but also that it is socially desirable that is do so because of the need for collective action in the maintenance of standards of living... National Council of Churches (Representing 33 million Protestants)

Baptist Churches

We recognize the right of labor to organize and to engage in collective bargaining to the end that labor may have a fair and living wage, such as will provide and culture.@ (SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION.)

We reaffirm the right of labor to organize into unions or to affiliate with national labor bodies.@ (NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION.)

Catholic Church

In the first place, employers and workmen may themselves effect much in the matter which we treat-(saving the workers from being ground down with excessive labor). The most important of all are workmen's associations...but it is greatly desired that they should multiply and become more effective. (LEO XIII).

What is to be thought of the action of those Catholic industrialists who even to this day have shown themselves hostile to a labor movement that we ourselves recommended.@ (PIUS XI.)

Labor can have no effective voice as long as it is unorganized. To protect its rights it must be free to bargain collectively through its own chosen representatives. Catholic Church

Church of the Brethren

Laborers are always to be regarded as persons and never as a commodity. Industry was made for man, and not man for industry. Employees as well as employers have the right to organize themselves into a union for wage negotiations and collective bargaining.@ (BRETHREN SERVICE COMMISSION, CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN.)

Congregational Christian Churches

We stand for the replacement of the autocratic organization of industry by one of collective effort of organized workers and organized employers.

The Disciples of Christ

ABe It Resolved by the International Convention of the Disciples of Christ:

That It is our conviction that workers should have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist in forming labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing and to engage in such activities as are within the limits of Constitutional rights for the purpose of bargaining with employers and other mutual aid protection.

Evangelical and Reformed Church

In order that the Christian principles of respect for personality, establishment of brotherhood, and obedience in the revealed will of God may find more adequate expression in the economic order, we commit our selves to work for ...the recognition of the right of employers and workers to organize for collective bargaining, as a step toward the democratic control of industry for the good of society.

Jewish Synagogue

The same rights of organization which rest with employers rest also with those whom they employ. Modern life has permitted wealth to consolidate itself through organization into corporations. Workers have the same inalienable right to organize according to their own plan for their common good and to bargain collectively with their employers through such honorable manes as they may choose.@ (CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS.)

We believe that the denial of the right of workers to organize and to form group associations so that they may treat as economic equals with their employers is tantamount to a curtailment of human freedom. For that reason, we favor the unionization of all who labor. Jewish

Methodist Church

We stand for the right of employees and employers alike to organize for collective bargaining and social action; protection of both in the exercise of their right; the obligation of both to work for the public good.@ (THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST CHURCH.)

Collective bargaining, in its mature phase, is democracy applied to industrial relations. It is representative government and reasoned compromise taking the place of authoritarian rule by force in the economic sphere. In its highest form it is the Christian ideal of brotherhood translated into the machinery of daily life.@ (GENERAL BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF THE METHODIST CHURCH.)

Presbyterian Church

Labor unions have been instrumental in achieving a higher standard of living and in improving working conditions. They have helped to obtain safety and health measures against occupational risk; to achieve a larger degree of protection against child labor; to relieve the disabled, the sick, the unemployed; and to gain a more equitable share in the value of what they produce.@ (BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, U.S.A.)

The right of labor to organize and to bargain collectively with employers is clearly an inalienable right in a democracy, and has so been recognized by our government.@ (SYNOD OF TENNESSEE, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF U.S.)

The Protestant Episcopal Church

We recognize the right of labor to organize and to engage in collective bargaining to the end that labor may have a fair and living wage, such as will provide not only for the necessities of life, but for recreation, pleasure, and culture.

Lutheran Church

We are convinced that the organization of labor is essential to the well being of the working people. It is based upon a sense of the inestimable value of the individual man.@United Lutheran Church In America

It is the right of every man to organize with his fellow workers for collective bargaining through representatives of his own free choice. It is the duty of both management and labor to accept and support conciliations and arbitration in industrial disputes...@ (BOARD OF SOCIAL MISSION AND THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA.)

| Login

Copyright ©2014 IBEW. IBEW is a registered trademark. All rights reserved