Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Labor (dis)union
Labor (dis)union
Jan 11, 2025 8:56 PM

The New York Times reports this morning that “leaders of four of the country’s largest labor unions announced on Sunday that they would boycott this week’s A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention, and officials from two of those unions, the service employees and the Teamsters, said the action was a prelude to their full withdrawal from the federation on Monday.”

The withdrawal is the culmination of a period of dissatisfaction with the direction of big labor in the US. The leaders of the dissident unions feel that “the federation under the leadership of its president, John J. Sweeney, has been ineffective in halting the decades-long slide of organized labor.” The disagreement is in part over the amount of AFL-CIO money that should go back to the local unions for recruitment.

Some of the dissenters feel that more money should be used for recruiting the next generation of union members, while the AFL-CIO leadership fears the diversion of funds would weaken the national political influence of labor unions.

This schism is occurring despite the efforts of the labor leadership to utilize religious leaders to push union membership. The Los Angeles Times recently reported on the interfaith outreach of the AFL-CIO, which “has hired more than three dozen aspiring ministers, imams, priests and rabbis to spread the gospel of union organizing across the nation this summer.”

This attempt to revitalize a form of the social gospel “seeks to recreate the historic partnership between faith and labor, an alliance that for nearly a century gave union leaders an aura of moral authority — and their cause the stamp of divine righteousness.”

There is some cause for doubt as to the authenticity of the effort, however. After signing up an interested worker, rabbinical student Margie Klein:

was pinning on a yarmulke — “to look more like a rabbi,” she explained — and preparing to march on AlliedBarton.

She read through a letter she had drafted to the firm: “Our traditions tell us that when one of us is poor, we are all impoverished…. When we work hard, we must be given the resources not only to get by, but to live, pray, and dream.”

“It’s a little spiritually cheesy,” she said doubtfully.

Two other interns came by to help; they added a quote from the Book of Micah to make the letter more authoritative. When Klein made her pitch to the exasperated manager at AlliedBarton, the other interns sang the line from Micah in the background: “We’ve got to do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with our God.”

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
Freedom and free stuff: How prudence preserves liberty
Is it possible for a government to respect economic freedom while also playing a more or less significant role in providing certain material goods to its citizens? Prudence provides an answer. Read More… What is the relationship between freedom and government redistribution? Can the two coexist? Some believe there is a negative correlation between the two because free economies are often associated with less government intervention. Others might argue that freedom and significant state intervention go hand in hand, because...
Banning evictions poses harm for low-income renters
When investors are not able to make a profit in one area, they will move to another. Under the threat of eviction bans, landlords have even greater cause to discriminate against e renters. Read More… The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Joe Biden’s recent renewal of the eviction mortarium as issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention e as no surprise. Even President Joe Biden publicly doubted whether his eviction ban was legal, admitting at...
Group behind annual Hong Kong pro-democracy commemoration under investigation
China’s National Security Law was implemented in June 2020, and bans what the CCP deems as secession, subversion, or terrorism. More than 100 activists have been arrested, countless others have fled, civil and/or political groups have disbanded, and businesses have been forced to shut down because of this policy. Read More… The Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, tightened its grip on public dissent Aug. 25 when party leadership announced its investigation into a leading pro-democracy group in Hong Kong. The...
‘No other rights are safe’ Next Digital media company announces its closing
Next Digital’s shutdown signals a dark new day for Hong Kong, as the Chinese Communist Party continues to restrict free speech. Read More… On Sept. 5, Next Digital, parent pany of the now-liquidated pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, announced it will begin taking steps to shut down amid pressure from the city’s National Security Law, or NSL. The NSL bans acts and speech the munist government consider threatening to national security, including secession, subversion and terrorism. The remaining four...
No, Tucker Carlson: The U.S. is not, will not, and never should be like Hungary
Carlson and others on the right have expressed admiration for Hungarian policies that squash progressive ideals, not realizing that the executive consolidation of power present in Hungary could do the same thing to conservative ideas if a progressive rises to power. Read More… Last month, Tucker Carlson replaced Rod Dreher as the latest conservative to take a pilgrimage to Hungary. Carlson praised Hungarian President Viktor Orbán’s pro-family policies, stricter immigration policies, and resistance to progressive views on gender, saying: “If...
Bombs, guns, and drones cannot win a spiritual war (UPDATED)
Forgiveness is the summit of all the terrorists’ fears, for it renders terror impotent. If only we had the strength to forgive. Read More… “[A]t 12 O’clock … our country gained its full independence, praise and gratitude be to God.” Who said it? An American revolutionary on Sept. 3, 1783, at the signing of the Treaty of Paris, perhaps? Maybe a French soldier on Aug. 25, 1944, when allied forces liberated Paris from the Nazis? How about a Romanian civilian...
Is it immoral to charge interest?
Within the right ethical parameters, charging interest can be morally permissible and even beneficial. But we should always stay mindful of the real risk of exploitation. Read More… Interest-bearing loans monplace in today’s economy, but are a subject of great contention in many of the world’s great intellectual and religious traditions. The Mosaic Law dictates: “If you lend money to any of my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender to him; do not charge...
Fate of 8 Hong Kongers lies in hands of Chinese Communist Party after attempted speedboat escape to Taiwan
munist oppression is so bad that desperate Hong Kongers are taking desperate steps to escape. munist party’s response to these attempts shows just why so many are trying to flee. Read More… Eight Hong Kongers who were involved in a 2020 attempt to flee to Taiwan via speedboat appeared in high court on Sept. 2, facing charges of perverting the course of justice within the restrictions set by Hong Kong’s National Security Law, or NSL, according to Hong Kong Free...
Hong Kong continues crackdown on freedom of assembly, arresting members of group behind Tiananmen Square commemoration
The e after multiple social groups have had no choice but to disband amid increasing pressure from the National Security Laws, which bans anything the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, perceives to be a threat to national security. Read More… Several members of a Hong Kong group that organizes an annual vigil for memoration of the Tiananmen Square Massacre were arrested on Sept. 8 after they refused to provide information for a police investigation. The group, The Hong Kong Alliance...
Dreher: A virtuous resistance against totalitarianism must challenge the status quo – especially in classrooms
Bestselling author Rod Dreher has spent countless hours interviewing and studying what it takes to produce a free and virtuous society. The key ingredients? Creativity and courage among educators and leaders, upheld by Judeo-Christian anthropology – the eternal “basis” for our inalienable rights and liberties. Read More… What’s the foundation of a good education system? Creativity and courage, according to Rod Dreher, author of the bestselling book “Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents.” Dreher argues it is...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved