Interfaith Worker Justice - Religious Labor Movement

Religious Labor Movement

Religious organizations and the American labor movement have a long history of interaction and mutual support. But large, formal, national organizations can be traced only to the early part of the 1900s, and most had folded by the 1960s.

In 1910, the Rev. Charles Stelzle, a Presbyterian Church pastor, established the Labor Temple in New York City. The Labor Temple was a church but also a meeting space, union hiring hall, and school. Stelzle, a proponent of the social gospel, promoted the establishment of similar Labor Temples nationwide (although many of them were secular in nature). For years, the New York City Labor Temple was the center of the city's union life. But most local Labor Temple movements did not survive the 1930s.

That same year, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) undertook a program called "Labor Forward". The program, which lasted until 1920, took place in approximately 150 cities across the United States. It was designed to convince workers of the labor movement's commitment to Christian ideals and labor-management cooperation.

In 1920, the organization later known as the National Farm Worker Ministry was founded to support agricultural workers. The organization was originally called the Council of Women for Home Missions, and its mission was to provide day-care for workers' children. In 1926, the organization changed its name to the National Migrant Ministry, and was now sponsored by the Federal Council of Churches (the forerunner to the National Council of Churches). By 1939, the organization had established workers' rights and worker support programs in 15 states. The California Migrant Ministry played a key role in supporting Cesar Chavez and the founding of the United Farm Workers.

In 1932, the Federal Council of Churches established the National Religion and Labor Foundation (later called the Religion and Labor Council of America). The foundation was organized by Willard Uphaus, a professor at Yale Divinity School. It sponsored internships and fellowships for religious people within labor unions, supported programs for seminary students to attend the AFL (and, later CIO) conventions, and advocated on behalf of workers in various labor disputes. For many years, it published the newsletter Just Economics, which pushed progressive economic policies. But the organization dissolved in 1966.

A variety of Catholic-sponsored pro-labor movements also sprung up during the 1930s. In 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, began to support labor unions as means to ensure worker justice. In 1937, John Cort founded the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, an organization of Catholic trade union members and supporters. Similarly, 1936 saw the organization of hundreds of Catholic "labor schools" -- adult education centers which taught industrial relations, collective bargaining and employment law to workers. The labor school movement was sponsored by the National Catholic Welfare Conference (forerunner to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Most schools were organized by local priests, dioceses and/or Catholic colleges. Although more than 150 labor schools were initially established, by 1956 only 49 were still operating. In 1962 there were only 15, and in 2007 only one (in Boston, Massachusetts).

In 1934, leaders of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Jewish Labor Bund, the United Hebrew Trades and other organizations founded the Jewish Labor Committee. The secular organization was founded to organize opposition to the rise of Nazism in Germany - see particularly Gail Malmgreen's article, below. Today, the organization works as the liaison agency linking the organized Jewish community and organized labor. The organization, has national offices in New York, with local staffed offices and/or lay-led groups in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, Cleveland and elsewhere.