Whenever a few U.S. citizens sit down together and start talking about various aspects of the political scene, the immigration issue will quickly raise its head. The subject was a major issue during the last presidential campaign and it certainly sees many bills surfacing, not only in Washington but in Southwestern states as well. Whether it is accurate or not, the fact is that the figure 12 million illegal immigrants is the one most quoted in these discussions – 12 million human beings. And what are we as a nation going to do about it?
It was a Democratic issue until after the election when the Republicans saw that they were losing very badly among Hispanics, the fastest growing voting bloc in the nation. GOP leaders have softened their position and are now taking an interest in some type of solution to the issue, and some type of solution will be found! Why? Because we need them!
Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal had a very supportive article written by Giovanni Peri of the University of California in which he was pushing that not only would legalization of the undocumented be a tremendous asset to these 12 million human beings but that it would also be an extraordinary shot in the arm for the American economy. Dr. Peri urged simplification in the process of entering the country and allocating the number of temporary work visas on the basis of actual demand for their labor. Currently, visas are very limited with no consideration to the economic conditions that are present. The third point is that he thinks the country would be very wise to recognize that scientists, engineers and innovators are the main drivers of productivity and economic growth. He documented that the presence of this group allowed into country between 1990 and 2010 contributed 10% to 20% of the yearly productivity growth. That is an aggregate increase of output of 615 billion as of 2010. Wow!
Let’s get moving on immigration reform.

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You don’t have to know how to use a hammer or be a finished carpenter but if you are, that would really help. The Diocese of Austin is filled with wonderful people giving up their time and talent to help those who have less or who are in some type of need or difficulty. One of my favorite groups is called the “Catholic Habitators.” They are an active group of Catholic men and women and young people who are always in the process of constructing new homes for people in need. In Austin, they have built 19 homes and several more up in the Waco area. This group is part of an international program of building homes for the poor. The organization is Habitat for Humanity, founded by Millard Fuller, and because of his vision nearly half a million families now own their own homes.
Needless to say these houses are not freebies. Those who will get them have to put a vast amount of their own labor in helping others build their houses before they get theirs.
On January 19th, the group gathered to start a new house in the Toll Bridge Circle area in north central Austin. They will gather every Saturday for eight to ten weeks and when the house is finished either Bishop Vasquez or another diocesan official will be there to bless their work and to thank them for their generosity.
These wonderful people not only donate their time, energy and give up Saturdays in order to build these houses, but they also help pay for them. Labor is only one part of the cost of a house. Land, concrete, pipe, wiring, etc., etc. have to be paid for. The cost per house is $40,000. If you can’t give up a Saturday or two and don’t want to develop any calluses on your hands, give serious thought to sending $50 or $100 to this undertaking. There are more than 19 families who are now living in beautiful homes because of the generosity of this group.
I try to get out there every Saturday but since I am not too valuable on the construction site, I always try to bring enough Vietnamese eggrolls for everybody.
God Vincente and Maria and their three children who are about to get a home. God bless these wonderful workers. God bless the Vietnamese eggrollers. God bless you if you can step in and help with this. Give it some thought and prayer.
Austin Habitat for Humanity can be contacted at 310 Comal, Suite 100, Austin, Texas 78702,
(512) 472-8788, info@austinhabitat.org.

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With the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935, giving labor the legal right to organize, with the strong support of some churches, most especially the Roman Catholic Church, and with a friendly Democratic administration manifesting itself via the Secretaries of Labor, efforts to unionize working people expanded across the country. By the 1950’s, nearly one-third of all workers were dues paying members of unions. Sadly, that was not to last.

All of that success in organizing gave some labor leaders an exaggerated sense of their own importance and power. In their organizing efforts, they got careless and sometimes inflicted unnecessary harm on private businesses. They began an internal struggle as unions competed with each other to organize particular groups of workers. They began to use a very unfair and destructive tool called “the secondary boycott.” The great strength of unions in this period is that they had successfully trained their members to not cross ANY picket line where some type of labor conflict existed. If they saw Union A organizing a company and Union B felt that this was their territory, then they should have that opportunity to organize there. Union B would then put a picket line up around the company involved and for all practical purposes that company would be shut down even though it had no direct involvement in the labor dispute. It was between two unions, not a union and the company.

This situation was so bad that it could not go on very long. Congress reacted by the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. The results were devastating for unionization and persist to this day. For 60 years, organized labor has had as its goal the removal of the Taft-Hartley Act but when they could not succeed even when they were really very strong, it is obvious that they cannot do it today. Unions continue to exist, continue to improve the lives of millions of its members (non-members as well!) but it is but a shadow of what it was in the 1950’s.

The Taft-Hartley Act placed a heavy burden on labors organizing efforts. It solved the unjust problem of “the secondary boycott” but it put in many other restrictions as well and labor has never recovered.

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For the most part, Americans are rather forward looking. They are optimistic and ready to take on the future. That is a good trait but it comes at a cost. As a nation, most of us are not overly interested in history. Here I pass up the temptation to use that tired, hackneyed expression about who is going to repeat it, but you know what I mean. One thing that most Americans are not familiar with is the history of organized labor. It is a great story of courage, heroism, some violence and, for a while, a period of triumph…but only for a while.

Labor has been in the news quite a bit of late but almost always in a negative light. Dues paying members have dropped dramatically over the last 25 years and the only area where successful organizing has been occurring is in the public sector unions. Realizing that, the opponents of organized labor have moved effectively to undercut and, if possible, break the backs of the public sector unions. For the last two years, we have seen a number of states move to block organizing efforts by their employees, cancel pensions, cut back benefits and blame the working people for the economic problems that these states face. I am saddened by the fact that while all this is going on the voice of the Church has been strangely silent.

First in Germany and then across Europe and the United States, the Roman Catholic Church espoused the cause of the working people and stood staunchly beside them as they struggled in the face of overwhelming odds. Although Leo XIII strongly supported workers rights to organize in 1899, American workers did not get that legal right until 1935 with the passage of the Wagner Act. Following the passage of that act, labor unions grew enormously in this country. Secretaries of Labor in the Democratic Administration were staunch supporters and bishops and priests became very public in their endorsement of working people’s right to better their economic condition. Things were going wonderfully well and then labor made a terrible mistake from which it has not yet recovered.

More on that tomorrow.

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When you read a book or see a movie about the system of slavery that tragically used to exist in this country, do you shudder a little to think about how horrible that period was? If you do, you certainly have the right reaction but please continue to shudder! Most of us seem to be ignorant of the fact that human slavery is still very much a part of the modern world, a horror story that is almost beyond belief.

The International Labor Organization estimates that 2.4 million people are trafficked globally each year generating profits running into the billions. A United Nations study has found that 79% of trafficking was for sexual exploitation while 18% was for forced labor.

Can you visualize the agonizing suffering, the loneliness and frustration that those cold statistics reflect?

The bishops of England and Wales are aware that London is the hub for much of this evil and are working to strengthen links between all those who are working to confront this horror. That includes the embassies, police staff and every imaginable type of charitable organization.

We should not kid ourselves into thinking that this is only a tragedy that occurs overseas. A great deal of it goes on in the United States. We should all be more conscious of this fact, be more conscious of the fact that it could be occurring close to us and we should be prepared to support the groups that are working on the issue.

International networks have been formed to endeavor to deal with this and we in America should be very active with them.

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Some of my readers have accused me of being anti-clerical. Isn’t that hilarious? I am a Catholic priest for 55 years and a bishop for 30. How could I be anti-clerical?

To prove that I am not, let me tell you about one of my new heroes. He is Bishop Gabino Zavala, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and he is one of the few bishops who is aggressively stepping forward to defend the rights of working people, most especially their right to form labor unions.

Although the Church has defended this right vigorously for the last 120 years, the bishops in the United States have of late had very little to say about the subject. The absence of bishops involvement in the rights of workers makes for a difficult situation but to refrain from active support at a time when a massive counterattack on workers rights has spread across the country and is betraying our nation’s commitment to serve the common good and defend the dignity of work of people.

Today, I bring up Bishop Zavala because he recently issued a statement justifiably praising the National Labor Relations Board, which had taken a small but important step in leveling the playing field for workers. The bishop is referring to the fact that the NLRB has recently changed the rules on the timing of union elections. This is a relatively minor rule change that restores fairness to a process that has been tilted heavily in favor of employers who often delay union votes by months and even years with excessive litigation. Bishop Zavala points out that “irresponsible companies that stall to prevent workers from voting to form a union frequently retaliate against employees with threats and intimidation. In fact, during the organizing campaign, more than a third of employers simply fire workers who are pro-union.”

Today, the unions are weak, vilified in the press and suffering from an unprecedented assault of workers rights. Some of it was brought about in the past by union mistakes but the union movement is still a great source of strength in our never-ending fight for justice and equality as we argue as to how to divide up the nation’s economic pie.

May God bless you, Bishop Gabino Zavala.

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One of the sad realities that I personally have had to deal with in my late years is the gradual lessening of the strong relationship that once existed between the Catholic Church and labor unions in the United States. The story of organized labor’s efforts to better the working conditions of its people in this country is a story that is filled with idealism, courage and occasionally blood. Because of their size, the railroad workers were one of the first to get legislation that enabled them to organize themselves effectively. It was not, however, until the Wagner Act of the mid-‘30’s that labor achieved a solid legal right to exist and organize. That right would be largely undercut by the passage of the Taft Hartley Act in the 1950’s. I’ve mentioned this before but organized labor is but a shadow of its former self.

There is, however, one exception and that is the organization of public employees unions. They have experienced very strong growth over the last 30 years and that has been seen as a threat by many who oppose any efforts of working people to organize to better their own pay and working conditions.

I have been saddened by the lack of any real visible support from bishops as state governments in the Upper Midwest have aggressively moved to remove their rights to collective bargaining. There was a statement here and a mild protest there but, for the most part, there has been silence.

Blessed Pope John Paul II was really very strong in this area. He wrote two encyclicals on the rights of labors to organize and was the driving force behind the growth of solidarity in Poland which ultimately led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. I had the privilege of being a speck in the crowd of 700,000 in Gdansk who stood cheering the Pope as he spoke out for the rights of workers in Poland and across the world.

One of the reasons of the distancing between the Church and labor is that the great majority of American priests in the United States come from affluent homes. They did not see their fathers come home battered and dirty from exhausting jobs in mills and factories. They did not see the price that had to be paid in order to improve working conditions for laborers. Therefore, the natural tendency to support labor is absent. However, as the flow of wealth in this country continues to move to a tiny, tiny percentage of our citizens and as the conditions of the middle class grows steadily more difficult, we may see priests and bishops rediscover the richness of the Catholic heritage in this area.

Onward through the fog.

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Organized labors struggle to better itself and get its share of the economic pie go back to the late 1700’s in New England. At that time, you could be arrested for even wanting to discuss an increase in wages. This struggle would go on throughout the 19th century often marked by violence and bloodshed.

It was not until 1935 with the passage of the Wagner Act that organized labor really had a firm right to exist and to organize. In the 1950’s, about one-third of the American workforce in the United States belonged to Labor Unions. Today, union membership numbers less than half of that amount. For more than 20 years, working people in the United States have been losing ground economically. Now we see governors of a number of states who are attempting to blame the budget shortfalls on the working men and women of this country. In Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana, unions have become the whipping boys for politicians and their right to organize, being gained only after the struggles for 100 years, is being arbitrarily cast aside.

Where is the voice of the Church? In the 1930’s, when unions were under attack, bishops and parish priests stood side-by-side in the picket lines and helped labor gain its voice. Have the clergy of the Church today lost contact with their roots? I certainly hope not but we shall see.

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