Monsignor Jack Schuler: St. Joseph reminds us that workers deserve justice

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/st-joseph-reminds-us-that-workers-deserve-justice/article_99b49b15-3054-54f0-b7b1-a68e01dd6f40.html

May 01, 2013 9:15 am • By Monsignor Jack Schuler

Today, our church celebrates the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. When Pope Pius XII instituted this tradition 58 years ago, he honored the long-standing link between Joseph and the cause of working people. This year, the call to honor and remember working people couldn’t be more timely — or more necessary.

While working people in our communities continue to struggle, too many politicians in Jefferson City seem not to notice. Many have been relentless in their attacks on basic protections for working people, protections long supported by the Catholic Church and other faith traditions. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands in our state suffer from inadequate health care and too few jobs that pay a living wage.

So-called right-to-work and paycheck-protection bills seek to limit the right of working people to organize and silence their voices. If enacted, these laws would make it more difficult for hardworking first nurses, first responders, teachers and other workers to advocate for safer working conditions and provide critical services to our communities.

These bills, along with attempts to eliminate prevailing wage protections, seek to lower wages in our communities. They would make it even more difficult for families struggling to get by — and would unfairly reward corporate greed. Simply put, on this Feast of St. Joseph in 2013, working people in Missouri face an onslaught of dangerous and unfair legislation.

FULL story at link.

Monsignor Jack Schuler is pastor of St. Ferdinand parish in Florissant and member of the Workers Rights Board of Missouri Jobs with Justice, a coalition of almost 100 different organizations statewide. Through Missouri JwJ, faith, community, labor and student groups work to promote economic justice.



This 2000 file photo shows the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City. Photo by J.B. Forbes.