Another View: Retired Catholic bishop says Right-to-Work only helps the powerful and wealthy

[rug]

The following is the view of retired auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton as Michigan's legislature looks toward right to work legislation.

Published: Monday, December 10, 2012, 1:20 PM
By Shannon Murphy | [e-mail]

“We firmly oppose organized efforts, such as those regrettably now seen in this country, to break existing unions and prevent workers for organizing.”

My brother bishops and I wrote that more than a quarter-century ago in our 1986 letter Economic Justice for All. Regrettably, it rings true still today.

The right-to-work legislation that was passed by the House and the Senate in Michigan just this month is designed to break unions. It is designed to prevent workers from organizing. And we must oppose it as firmly as we did during the 1980s.

As Catholics, we believe that if the dignity of work is to remain protected, then the basic rights of workers must be protected — fair wages, freedom from discrimination and the right to organize and join unions. We believe in justice. We believe in the common good.

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/saginaw/index.ssf/2012/12/another_view_retired_catholic.html

[UrbScotty]

1. Bishop Gumbleton is one of the Church's greatest champions of social justice.

And this shows why.

[demosincebirth]

2. That's one Bishop I can agree with

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Of course, Gumbleton would not have a prayer of becoming a bishop under Benedict