Is a Union Good or Bad?
CHRIST & NEIGHBOR
When last we met we were discussing the ambiguous record of Roman Catholic institutions toward trade unions, particularly as analyzed in an excellent pamphlet written by Ed Marciniak. We agreed to continue the discussion by addressing the question why anti-unionism is not a “legitimate moral, Christian, Catholic option.”
The title of this column — “Is a Union Good or Bad?” — is a foolish question, a foolish title, and we stuck it up there only to lure the unwary reader into reading the column, if only to find out why anyone should ask such a foolish question.
The question is foolish because a union is a human organization and it is either good or bad depending on the human beings who control it, some being very good, some very bad, and the rest somewhere on a continuum in between.
Unionism is something else. Unionism is simply the principle that human beings working together may derive benefits from banding together in an organization, usually called a union, guild, or association, on the elementary basis that “in union there is strength.”
You May Also Enjoy
If states offer school vouchers to parents, then states should require teacher salaries commensurate with those of public-school teachers.
The FIRE strategy -- which stands for financial independence, retire early -- doesn’t alter the debt-peonage economy; it just carves out exceptions for a select few.
Old categories of class, politics, and education have given way to a deep-down hatred for one another that traditional social sets can no longer begin to explain.