National
Council of Churches (Representing 33 million Protestants)
Whereas, the churches, in the statement of 'The Social
Ideals' have stood for 'The right of employees and employers alike to
organize for collective bargaining'. Resolved: that the National Council
record its conviction that not only has labor a right to organize, but
also that it is socially desirable that is do so because of the need for
collective action in the maintenance of standards of living... National
Council of Churches (Representing 33 million Protestants)
Baptist Churches
We recognize the right of labor to organize and to
engage in collective bargaining to the end that labor may have a fair
and living wage, such as will provide and culture.@ (SOUTHERN BAPTIST
CONVENTION.)
We reaffirm the right of labor to organize into unions
or to affiliate with national labor bodies.@ (NORTHERN BAPTIST
CONVENTION.)
Catholic Church
In the first place, employers and workmen may themselves
effect much in the matter which we treat-(saving the workers from being
ground down with excessive labor). The most important of all are
workmen's associations...but it is greatly desired that they should
multiply and become more effective. (LEO XIII).
What is to be thought of the action of those Catholic
industrialists who even to this day have shown themselves hostile to a
labor movement that we ourselves recommended.@ (PIUS XI.)
Labor can have no effective voice as long as it is
unorganized. To protect its rights it must be free to bargain
collectively through its own chosen representatives. Catholic
Church
Church of the Brethren
Laborers are always to be regarded as persons and never
as a commodity. Industry was made for man, and not man for industry.
Employees as well as employers have the right to organize themselves
into a union for wage negotiations and collective bargaining.@ (BRETHREN
SERVICE COMMISSION, CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN.)
Congregational Christian Churches
We stand for the replacement of the autocratic
organization of industry by one of collective effort of organized
workers and organized employers.
The Disciples of Christ
ABe It Resolved by the International Convention of the
Disciples of Christ:
That It is our conviction that workers should have the
right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist in forming labor
organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their
own choosing and to engage in such activities as are within the limits
of Constitutional rights for the purpose of bargaining with employers
and other mutual aid protection.
Evangelical and Reformed Church
In order that the Christian principles of respect for
personality, establishment of brotherhood, and obedience in the revealed
will of God may find more adequate expression in the economic order, we
commit our selves to work for ...the recognition of the right of
employers and workers to organize for collective bargaining, as a step
toward the democratic control of industry for the good of society.
Jewish Synagogue
The same rights of organization which rest with
employers rest also with those whom they employ. Modern life has
permitted wealth to consolidate itself through organization into
corporations. Workers have the same inalienable right to organize
according to their own plan for their common good and to bargain
collectively with their employers through such honorable manes as they
may choose.@ (CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS.)
We believe that the denial of the right of workers to
organize and to form group associations so that they may treat as
economic equals with their employers is tantamount to a curtailment of
human freedom. For that reason, we favor the unionization of all who
labor. Jewish
Methodist Church
We stand for the right of employees and employers alike
to organize for collective bargaining and social action; protection of
both in the exercise of their right; the obligation of both to work for
the public good.@ (THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST CHURCH.)
Collective bargaining, in its mature phase, is democracy
applied to industrial relations. It is representative government and
reasoned compromise taking the place of authoritarian rule by force in
the economic sphere. In its highest form it is the Christian ideal of
brotherhood translated into the machinery of daily life.@ (GENERAL BOARD
OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF THE METHODIST CHURCH.)
Presbyterian Church
Labor unions have been instrumental in achieving a
higher standard of living and in improving working conditions. They have
helped to obtain safety and health measures against occupational risk;
to achieve a larger degree of protection against child labor; to relieve
the disabled, the sick, the unemployed; and to gain a more equitable
share in the value of what they produce.@ (BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION,
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, U.S.A.)
The right of labor to organize and to bargain
collectively with employers is clearly an inalienable right in a
democracy, and has so been recognized by our government.@ (SYNOD OF
TENNESSEE, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF U.S.)
The Protestant Episcopal Church
We recognize the right of labor to organize and to
engage in collective bargaining to the end that labor may have a fair
and living wage, such as will provide not only for the necessities of
life, but for recreation, pleasure, and culture.
Lutheran Church
We are convinced that the organization of labor is
essential to the well being of the working people. It is based upon a
sense of the inestimable value of the individual man.@United Lutheran
Church In America
It is the right of every man to organize with his fellow
workers for collective bargaining through representatives of his own
free choice. It is the duty of both management and labor to accept and
support conciliations and arbitration in industrial disputes...@ (BOARD
OF SOCIAL MISSION AND THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH
IN AMERICA.)
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