Promoted from diaries by Bill S.

You know the old saying about religion and politics? Well, sometimes the twain do meet…

Never mind that today’s unions rake in roughly thirteen billion dollars a year from workers (the majority of whom are forced to pay the union or be fired from their jobs); and never mind the history of violence and union corruption; and never mind the desire to eliminate secret-ballots or the buying of politicians, or the sheer hypocrisy…

According to a group of Catholic scholars, there’s going to be a lot of us heading South..

Catholic scholars say those who thwart labor unions commit mortal sin

A group of Catholic scholars contends that management efforts to break labor unions are a grave breech of the church’s social doctrine and tantamount to committing mortal sin.

Problem is, someone’s got some explaining to do…

In November 2006, the Diocese of Scranton announced its plans to restructure its schools. That decision simultaneously brought closure to the old schools and the bargaining relationship that several of those schools had with their in-house unions, all of which were under the umbrella of the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers (SDACT).

[snip]

On Sept. 3, the first arbitration award was handed down, that affecting Bishop Hoban. SDACT and the teachers were the winners in the dispute. The arbitrator’s award called for the employer to immediately begin paying $725,000 to Hoban’s 40 teachers. Since then, similar awards were handed down in the other disputes. When the dust settles and all of the arbitrators have ruled, the diocese may owe nearly $2 million to the teachers in the 12 affected schools.

This immediate payout (and the enormous associated legal costs) will no doubt have an unfavorable impact on the diocese and its schools. It is just one more foreseeable and avoidable consequence of a reckless policy of union-busting initiated by Bishop Joseph Martino and his advisers.

The diocese has attempted to spin this outcome to make it a demonstration of the union’s “greed.”

A lot of explaining…

Then, of course, there’s that whole glass house thing…

[Be careful with those broken shards, fellas, they can be sharp.]
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.

Cross-posted.