Acton PowerBlog: Unions and Catholic Social Teaching
... Baird articulates that unions are fully endorsed by Catholic social teaching and are justified on the grounds of freedom of association. ...
... However, while the right to unionization is supported by freedom of association, there are parameters under Catholic social teaching that unions should follow.
Baird further explains papal views concerning unions and how those have designed the current viewpoint regarding unions. According to Baird, Libertas, and encyclical written by Leo XIII on the nature of human liberty in the Catholic thought, expresses that:
…liberty requires being free to choose and this freedom of making choices is the essence of free will. This implies, for example, that in the market for representation services, workers should have alternatives from which to choose, including self-representation.
Later in Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII declares that workers must have the freedom to choose not to associate with unions whose actions are not consistent with the Catholic teaching, and, based on the freedom of association and the principle of voluntary exchange, compulsory unionism is forbidden by the Church. ...
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