Big Gains for the Union Liberation Movement

The Michigan legislature passed right-to-work legislation today, a landmark event that promises to accelerate the state’s rebound from the near-collapse it suffered in the deep recession of 2008. The bills are now headed to Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk. The right-to-work passage was a stunning reversal in a very blue state -- the home of the United Auto Workers union. Following setbacks for organized labor in Wisconsin last year, the unions next turned to Michigan in an attempt to enshrine prerogatives for their organizing efforts in the state constitution. A union-backed ballot proposal was handily defeated by voters in the Nov. 6 election.

But according to some on the Christian left, the right-to-work law is the worst thing that could happen to “workers.” Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a retired auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, argued in an opinion piece that right-to-work “devastates economic justice.” He claims to speak not just for Catholics or for Christians but quite simply for faith communities all over the world:

At the core of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and all great religions are the values of dignity and respect, values from which economic justice and the right to organize can never be separated. Gov. Rick Snyder’s Presbyterian tradition “affirms the rights of labor organization and collective bargaining as minimum demands of justice.” Similar statements have been made by the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to name but a few.

However, we do not need statements from on high to understand what we know to be true on the ground. Right-to-work laws do not help the least among us. Rather, they profit those who already hold more power and wealth than is their fair share. They foster extreme inequality, inequality that can only lead to extreme disparities and extreme division. 

[ … ] 

Just as Catholic bishops united in 1986 to speak against organized efforts to break unions, it is now time for Michigan citizens of all faiths to unite against an unjust law, passed in great haste, which will do great damage to our state. Each of us must take responsibility for speaking out and taking action to prevent a terrible injustice from occurring in Michigan.

I dissent. Michigan’s new right-to-work law is neither “unjust” nor will it “foster extreme inequality.” The law simply gives working people the freedom to choose whether or not they want to be members of a union. What’s more, they are not forced to pay union dues or agency fees as a condition of employment. Another word for this is freedom.

Historically, the Catholic Church has looked favorably on unions -- with exceptions, of course. The Church sees unions as one way to look after the well-being of workers and their families. However, this favorable bias does not mean that workers are obligated to join a union, nor that management is obligated to accept the terms of a union. The right to join a union, in Church social teaching, is rooted in the natural right of association, which of course also means that people have the right not to associate. Which is exactly what this legislation addresses; it protects workers from being coerced to association with and paying fees to a group with whom they would rather not join.

Pope Leo XIII addressed the intolerable treatment of workers during the Industrial Revolution in Rerum Novarum. As I have observed earlier on this blog, the “savage capitalism” that occurred several decades ago is not what workers in Michigan face today. The entire thrust of Leo’s encyclical, beginning with its title, was precisely aimed at looking around at the “new things” (Rerum Novarum) that were emerging in his day, and reflecting upon them in the light of Scripture, Tradition and the Natural Law. If the situation for Michigan workers is remotely comparable to the subsistence living conditions under which many workers lived in the latter part of the 19^th century, this has somehow escaped my notice.

In Laborem Exercens, Blessed John Paul II wrote: “Unions do not have the character of political parties struggling for power; they should not be subjected to the decision of political parties or have too close links with them.” Paul VI’s offer a caution about unions when he wrote in Octogesmia adveniens (no.14): “Their activity, however, is not without its difficulties. Here and there the temptation can arise of profiting from a position of force to impose, particularly by strikes – the right to which as a final means of defense remains certainly recognized – conditions which are too burdensome for the overall economy and for the social body, or to desire to obtain in this way demands of a directly political nature.”

Writing in the Detroit Free Press in 1995, Larry Reed – then president of the Michigan-based Mackinac Center, concisely framed the issue. “Right-to-work really means the right to work for more – more individual freedom, more jobs and more income in real terms,” he said. “It is not anti-union; it is purely and simply pro-choice. The only thing unions have to fear from right-to-work is the free choice of the very workers union leaders say they are in business to help.”

That, to my mind, is also a good working definition of economic justice, one we can embrace without reservation.

New book: A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey

I've written a new book with Jeff Sandefer, an entrepreneur and founder of Acton Academy, entitled A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey.  The description is below.  You can find out more by visiting the official website for the book.

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Do you feel trapped, bored, stuck in a meaningless routine? It may be you think you’re too ordinary to ever do something special. Perhaps you’re afraid that if you try, you’ll fail.

The startling truth is this: Just about anyone can do great things, can live a life that’s remarkable, purposeful, excellent, and yes, even heroic. If you want to be a hero, you can be.

How?

That’s what this book is all about.

Will you choose to do it? Will you decide to journey heroically, instead of spending your life merely marking time?

If so, this is the book for you. Welcome to your heroic journey.

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"Hero's Journey should be required reading for all young people entering the business world who dream of being entrepreneurs and are seeking inspiration."
 --Philip Anschutz, Chairman and CEO, The Anschutz Corporation

"Many 'new ideas' in today's leadership writing are recycled from timeless exemplars in literature, philosophy and sacred texts. Hero's Journey draws upon those texts but wraps them in poignantly personal lessons from a world class entrepreneur and a worldly statesman priest."
--Louis Kim, Vice President, Hewlett-Packard

"A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey" is an amazing book. Inspirational and practical at the same time and guaranteed to address virtually any "do I have what it takes?" questions you may have about a life of entrepreneurship. Jeff Sandefer is the educator better suited than anyone on earth to give lie to the adage, "Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach." He's been there, done it (incredibly well), and now teaches with a caring and compassion I have experienced in few other successes.
--Dr. Steven Berglas, psychiatrist, formerly at Harvard Medical School and current Forbes columnist

Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico have national reputations as extraordinary teachers who change the lives of their students forever. Guided by the premise that everyone has the potential to be a hero, this inspirational and practical book will help you focus on the right questions that will enable you to lead a life of purpose, achievement, and, yes, heroism.
--Adam Meyerson, President, The Philanthropy Roundtable

"Defending the Free Market: the Moral Case for a Free Economy"

My new book has been released. You may purchase your copy at Amazon and book sellers everywhere. Here are a few kind words from others:

“I’ve been eagerly anticipating such a book from Father Sirico for a long time. The man has delivered magnificently. Defending the Free Market does more than the title suggests. It celebrates the miracle of freedom and points a lost generation back to the free and virtuous society.”
—Lawrence Kudlow, anchor of CNBC’s The Kudlow Report

“Father Robert Sirico is a voice who must be heard. Defending the Free Market provides a solidly Christian perspective on capitalism and free markets—and makes the compelling case that we cannot possibly understand economics and how markets function without understanding the true nature of man.”
—Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship® and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview

"I've been doing financial counseling and education for over two decades, and one thing that has always stood out to me is how much money is connected to every part of our lives, from relationships to politics to ministry. Money is never just about money; it's always just part of the issue. That's why I appreciate Father Robert Sirico's ministry. Sure, he talks about money, but he also shows how all of these different aspects of our lives interact with and impact each other."
—Dave Ramsey, New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio show host

Prayers for Chuck Colson

Friends and supporters of the Acton Institute will want to know that our dear friend and collaborator Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship Ministries founder, is recovering well from a surgery that removed a blood clot from his brain Saturday morning. I recently spoke with Rev. Jim Liske, CEO of Prison Fellowship, and he asks for our prayers.

 

Please join me and the staff of the Acton Institute in offering earnest prayer for Chuck’s well-being and full recovery and also that the comfort of the Holy Spirit would surround his wife Patty and the entire ministry of Prison Fellowship in this time of difficulty. That this should occur during the very week most of the Christian world commemorates our Lord’s own passion for our redemption is not without meaning, and is an assurance that God remains, as always, in control.

My Latest Op/Ed in the WSJ

In the Wall Street Journal, I look at the recent “note” on economics released this week by the Vatican. The document, titled “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was published with an eye toward the upcoming G-20 meeting in Cannes, France, on Nov. 3-4. This 18-page document has, Rev. Sirico observes, “been celebrated by advocates of bigger government the world over.”

But what’s missing from the popular analysis is that the Vatican document “embraces a sound economic theory concerning the cause of the world financial crisis: the breakdown of the postwar Bretton Woods monetary system and the unleashing of fiat currencies and central-bank printing presses.”

Here I am:

We went from a hard-money regime, in which there were restrictions on the power of central banks and financial institutions to create money and credit, to one where money became purely paper. There were no restrictions remaining on the power of governments to finance unlimited debt. Banks could create credit seemingly without limit. Central banks became the real power in the world economy.

None of this was true under a gold standard. That system limits the expansion of credit by an indelible physical fact. There was a limit, a check, a rule that went beyond the whim of financial masters and politicians. The Vatican seems to understand this.

But discerning the disease and finding the cure are very different undertakings, and here the document falls short. It imagines a new world central bank and political authority that will rule without “any partial vision or particular good” but rather seek “the common good.” Its decisions should “be made in the interest of all, not only to the advantage of some groups, whether they are formed by private lobbies or national governments.”

Somehow, with an intelligence never before discovered in government bureaucracies, these proposed global authorities would create “socio-economic, political and legal conditions essential for the existence of markets that are efficient and efficacious.”

Read “The Vatican’s Monetary Wisdom” on the website of the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203554104576655052604890180.html.

Jobs & Deficits - The Moral Equation

My column in today’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Jobs & deficits — the moral equation

By Rev. Robert A. Sirico

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Genesis account of creation tells us that from the beginning, humanity was created to work. God puts Adam in the garden to "work and watch over it." The Scripture provides an insight into our nature: We are all, man and woman, called into this life to find our vocation, the work that is uniquely ours and contributes to the flourishing of the wider community.

This explains why we are naturally so troubled about what appear to be merely economic problems: intractable unemployment and the various schemes put forth by policy makers to spur job creation. But behind the question is the reality that we naturally prefer people to be productive contributors to our economic life.

How we accomplish that is the subject of the debate over our unsustainable budget and debt trajectory. Do we choose those policies that make room for more freedom in the market, unleashing the creative potential of the American worker, business owner and entrepreneur? Or do we default, once more, to political and bureaucratic measures that require heavier burdens of taxation and regulation?

A government that actively sustains poverty by removing natural incentives to work is gravely in the wrong. Such government is without its essential anchor, which is that understanding of humanity as creative and productive.

The super committee created by Congress' debt-ceiling compromise has begun its work to find $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts ($2 trillion if the committee accepts the cuts corresponding to President Obama's proposed stimulus). Even after this reduction, though, the nation's debt will be unacceptably burdensome.

In 2011, for the first time since World War II, the amount of our total federal debt will surpass annual GDP. This is perilous, because economic capacity begins to be seriously affected when a country's debt reaches 80 percent of GDP.

The super committee should begin by cutting social programs that perpetuate cycles of poverty. The only way to rise from poverty is to contribute to economic activity -- a job is the best poverty program ever devised.

The federal government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the "War on Poverty" since Lyndon B. Johnson declared it, but we have next to nothing to show for the expense. And the agenda put forward by the religious left devalues the human person, treating the poor as objects of charity rather than as economic contributors.

The federal government does have real obligations to current generations that must be met. But without substantive reform of our largest entitlement programs, the country's long-term fiscal health cannot be secured.

We cannot leave future generations with the full burden of our debt, which becomes a heavier weight the longer it is left unaddressed.

Congress must remember that economic growth is driven by innovations -- by improvements in how the population produces goods and delivers them. The incentives caused by an expanding government run counter to economic growth because they run counter to human nature.

As reform of federal spending is undertaken, all cuts must be made with an eye to freeing citizens of every class to pursue their economic potential -- to engage in the kind of dignified work that is essential to our nature, properly understood.

The Rev. Robert A. Sirico is president of the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich. He is delivering a luncheon lecture today at the Duquesne Club.

The Paper Pope

I have said it many times in the past, but now I have confirmation: According to the editors of the New York Times, the Pope is not permitted to make moral judgments because only the Editorial Board of the New York Times (all genuflect here) is permitted to pontificate:

“Ms. Abramson, 57, said that as a born-and-raised New Yorker, she considered being named editor of The Times to be like “ascending to Valhalla.”

“In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion,” she said. “If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth.”

Related: The NYT as religion