Union activists and middle class voters gathered by the thousands in Madison yesterday to protest Governor Scott Walker and the Republican legislators' bill which stripped away collective bargaining rights for state employees. An estimated 100,000 people gathered to protest.
After the bill signing ceremony, Walker stated in a press conference that he believed that voters would come around to his point of view because they would find that the bill will help reduce the state's financial problems.
Religious Perspectives.
Although unions are barred at some Catholic hospitals and schools, the Catholic Church's recognition of labor rights has been a cornerstone of its social justice philosophy. However, the Church's support of unions is tempered.
As Wisconsin's bill was being debated, Archbishop Listecki remarked that "Hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers," adding that not all claims made by workers or their representatives is valid" and that unions need to "make sacrifices when required" in adjusting to "new economic realities." His statement was issued on behalf of the state's bishops and released by the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.
Writing for Religion Dispatches, Pastor Donald Schultz pointed out that many within the interfaith community opposed the anti-union legislation because of a belief that it is immoral for the government to strip away the dignity of human individuals and to broaden the gap between "haves and have nots" … but absent from that opposition was the Catholic Church. He listed some of the nightly vigils being held in the Madison faith community:
- Mondays 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.: Jewish Community, King Street entrance to Capitol
- Tuesdays 7:00 p.m. Unitarian Faith Community, begins with march from First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, along Old University Avenue up to Capitol.
- Wednesdays 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.: Episcopal faith community, State Street Entrance to Capitol
- Thursdays 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.: United Church of Christ and Lutheran ELCA faith communities, State Street Entrance to Capitol
- Fridays 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.: Presbyterian faith community, State Street Entrance to Capitol
- Saturdays 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.: Interfaith gathering hosted by MUM, State Street Entrance to Capitol
- Sundays 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.: Methodist faith community, State Street Entrance to Capitol
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, representing 1.5 million Reformed Jews, issued a press release on March 10:
In response to the passage of anti-labor legislation in Wisconsin, Mark Pelavin, Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
For weeks, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has insisted that his true intention in offering a so-called "budget repair bill," that contained deeply anti-labor provisions, was to restore the fiscal health of the state. On Wednesday night, the bill's supporters abruptly and utterly exposed the hollowness of that claim.
The bill that the state legislature ultimately passed did not decrease the deficit by one cent. It couldn't. With a quorum necessary under legislative rules to pass fiscal items, and with 14 Senators absent from the chamber in protest, the bill's supporters stripped the legislation of every item that actually affected the budget while leaving in place their true and core objective -- the elimination of state employees' collective bargaining rights. Though the workers had already acceded to contributing a greater portion of their wages to benefits and pensions, state legislators successfully pressed forward in removing their ability to recover their previous level of compensation once economic conditions improve and state coffers are replenished.
Clearly, passage of this legislation is a profound setback to workers' rights in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Wisconsin is far from the only state in which workers' rights are under assault. With the legislative standoff in Wisconsin over, focus now turns to Ohio, which is considering similar legislation, and Indiana, which is considering a far more extreme "right-to-work" law, which would make it impossible for many unions, both public and private, to operate in the state. Like Wisconsin, the laws being debated in these states have little to do with the budget and everything to do with trampling on workers' rights.
Jewish tradition is emphatic about workers' right to dignity. Deuteronomy teaches, "You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer...You must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for the worker is needy and urgently depends on it..." (24:14-15). Unions are the guarantors of modern labor rights. For this reason, the Union of Reform Judaism in its 2005 resolution, "Workers' Rights in the United States," recognizes, "the right to organize is not only an economic issue; it is also a human rights issue."
In recognition of their importance in defending working families, a rabbi from every Reform synagogue in Wisconsin recently joined together with colleagues from other denominations to oppose the legislation that ultimately became law. As labor battles unfold in other states, the Reform Jewish Movement will continue to defend the right to collective bargaining.
Anti-labor sentiment runs deep within the fundamentalist, right wing style of Christianity which drives a secretive Christianity cult that is a power broker in American politics. In this form of Christianity, persons who are not in power must be obedient and those who are in power and are wealthy were placed in their positions by divine will (read The Family by Jeff Sharlet).
A writer at the liberal PoliticusUSA argues that there is a deeper motive than simply anti-labor sentiment at work in Wisconsin's politics:
The evangelical Christian community is anti-public schools because they claim that liberal union teachers have been “driving God out of our history” and eliminating school prayers for years. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee circulated a letter promoting a book by Newt Gingrich titled, “Rediscovering God in America,” that pushes the myth that America is a Christian nation, and that “radical leftists and atheists…want to drive all religion out of American life.” Huckabee promotes a popular theme among Christian conservatives who want to, “train a new generation of leaders who will defend religious liberty in our schools.”
Chuck Colson, a far right preacher behind the theocratic Manhattan Declaration and a member of The Family who spent time in prison for Watergate, suggested that teachers who have been protesting in Wisconsin are not true Christians because they called in sick when they weren't really sick in order to protest and were thus acting in a sinful way and must pay the consequences for their sin and deceit.
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