PDF Version

Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice is an international association of scholars who are committed to Catholic Social Teaching on workers’ rights. We were founded to proclaim the Church’s extremely welcoming attitude to unions in the workplace and to support workers in both Catholic and secular workplaces who seek to form unions.

Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice is pleased to issue a Statement of Support for service workers at Catholic colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. We urge service workers to form unions to bargain collectively for fair wages, job security, health and retirement benefits and other improvements to the workplace that befit their dignity as human beings and creatures of God. We call upon the Trustees and administrators at Catholic colleges and universities to support their employees—as direct or indirect employers--as the workers assert the right to free association that is rooted in the natural moral law and that serves as the cornerstone of Catholic Social Teaching on workers’ rights.

Support for labor unions enjoys a long history in the Catholic Church. Beginning in the medieval period and especially since the publication of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), the Church has given exceptional support for labor unions and the Popes—from Leo to Benedict XVI—have encouraged workers to form unions. The official teaching of the Catholic Church as found in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) holds that labor unions exert a "positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore an indispensable element of social life." (#305) The Church further teaches that, "The Magisterium recognizes the fundamental role played by labor unions to defend the vital interests of workers employed in the various professions." (#305) [For a complete understanding of Catholic teaching on labor unions see the Chapter 6 of the Compendium, "On Human Work" pp. 115-140. See also CSWJ’s Foundational Statement that is posted on our website.] In addition, in 1986 the Catholic Bishops of the United States stated: "The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions…No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself." (Economic Justice for All, 1986, #104)