Is the IWW's "One Big Union" compatible with Catholic social teaching?

[HomeschoolDad]

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) promoted, and continue to promote, the concept of “One Big Union” to which all workers would belong. If there were “One Big Union”, management and capital would pretty much have to accede to whatever the workers demanded, or the whole economy would grind to a halt — Atlas Shrugged the other way around.

While I deplore that horrible cartoon that apparently reflects the thinking of the IWW — the one that depicts clergy of various denominations as part of the oppressing class — I find no fault in the concept of the OBU. I am a “capitalist”, you could say — I make much of my living off investments — but I will always take the side of the workers. Every single time. Because I’ve been one. Because my father and grandfather were workers. Because it’s right.

Is there, in fact, anything evil about the concept of the OBU, and if so, what is it?

 

[Convert3]

Is there, in fact, anything evil about the concept of the OBU, and if so, what is it?

Two words: Power Corrupts.

 

[StudentMI]

That’s odd. I was gonna ask my priest about this. I know of a few left libertarians who joined the IWW.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I am a “capitalist”, you could say — I make much of my living off investments — but I will always take the side of the workers.

“But, HSD, do you mean that you would agree to make less money, if it meant that workers would be paid more, and that more of them would be hired so that they could actually have a life outside of work, instead of understaffing so that you can squeeze more labor out of fewer people and leave them wrung out like dishrags at the end of the day?”

That’s precisely what I mean. Money is not everything. Even poor people in this country live like kings, compared to most people throughout the history of the world. It does not take a lot of money to live decently, if you assess your standard of living and ask yourself “what do I really need?”.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Is there, in fact, anything evil about the concept of the OBU, and if so, what is it?

It takes away individual freedom. Not only of any employer, but I would suppose everyone would be required to join the OBU…if so that takes away the freedom of everyone except the people running the union.

 

[StudentMI]

In a capitalist economy power is held by those with wealth which is generated by artificial scarcity induced by state approved monopolies. What’s the difference?

 

[mythbuster1]

They make the mistake of assuming that workers are a monolith with identical interests. Workers are also consumers, who don’t want their wages and savings destroyed by inflation.

 

[tafan2]

It won’t work. Unions are a good thing, but they are not exempt from the principle of subsidiarity. And when subsidiarity is abandoned, bad things ensue.

 

[po18guy]

Short answer: No. The “Wobblies” were part of the general atheistic/anarchistic/communistic etc. movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Violent conflicts with political authority, even deadly, was part of their operating tactics. They were street radicals.

“The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as “revolutionary industrial unionism”, with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements.”

The IWW was founded in Chicago, Illinois in the United States in June 1905. A convention was held of 200 socialists, anarchists Marxists - primarily members of the Socialist Party of America and Socialist Labor Party radical trade unionists from all over the United States

They were very nearly aspiring Bolsheviks. And, what is it about Chicago? It was/is the center of the IWW, mob violence, radicalism spouted by self-described subversive Saul Alinsky, to a certain recent president who also wanted to “transform” America.

The path to justice does not replace corporate greed with union greed. As Convert3 states, power corrupts. If we saw workers oppressed by corporate amorality, we see also companies destroyed by unrestrained union power.

There is a balance to be struck and the big corps of the late 1800s and the radical unions that resulted were not solutions, but only a greater problem.

 

[mythbuster1]

Indeed. Unions, too, need to be kept honest. If workers have no alternatives, they can’t hold the union accountable if it stops acting in their best interests.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

It won’t work. Unions are a good thing, but they are not exempt from the principle of subsidiarity. And when subsidiarity is abandoned, bad things ensue.

I see what you mean. Keep in mind, though, that the OBU is comprised of many smaller unions, one for each major trade or industry, and they act in consort and cooperation to protect one another’s interests as well as their own.

I would look to France as an example. Labor has huge power there, and every so often, this industry or that one goes on strike. Management has to stand up and take notice. As Pope Leo XIII said, capital cannot do without labor, and labor cannot do without capital. I was in France during a rail strike in 2010. They found a way to keep the public transport going, but it wasn’t easy, and it couldn’t have gone on forever. Getting from Brussels to Paris was a hat trick, but at the end of the day, I got there. That’s the way it needs to be here. France is a very wealthy, prosperous country with a high standard of living. We could do the very same way here, if we had the social solidarity that they do — Americans don’t have a concept of the manif (public demonstrations) — and if corporate greed were checked by an assertive and wide-ranging labor movement. But in America, everybody’s just out for themselves, and only themselves. From that comes the entire problem.

Rerum novarum needs to be required reading for anyone who engages with modern society.