A trade union is a free association of workers formed to defend their rights, negotiate their working conditions and promote their legitimate interests. Far from opposing it, the Catholic Church recognized, defended and encouraged trade unionism from its very first great social text, the encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII (1891), at the heart of the "labour question" born of the industrial revolution. In it she sees the application of a natural right: man's right, as a social being, to join with his fellows to achieve what he cannot obtain alone[1].
This recognition is, however, neither unconditional nor naive. The Church carefully distinguishes the authentic trade union — an instrument of justice, solidarity and dialogue — from its counterfeits: revolutionary unionism which makes the class struggle the engine of history, subservience to a party or an ideology, and corporatism which defends sectional privileges against the common good. John Paul II, who had supported the Polish union Solidarnosc, gave the fullest charter of trade unionism in Laborem Exercens (1981): the union is "an indispensable element of social life", the "mouthpiece of the struggle for social justice" — but of a struggle waged "for the sake of" the just good, not "against" others[2].
This article treats trade unions as an object of the Church's social doctrine: their foundation in the right of association, the founding recognition of Rerum Novarum, the development of the magisterium up to Laborem Exercens and the Compendium, the question of the right to strike and its limits, the counterfeits of trade unionism, and the long tradition of Christian trade unionism. Related subjects — workers' solidarity as a principle, the just wage, the common good, private property, the universal destination of goods, and the rejection of communism as of economic liberalism — are left to their own articles.
What is a trade union? The right of association
Before being a legal institution governed by labour law, the trade union is, for the Church, the expression of a natural inclination. Man is not an isolated individual whom society constrains from outside: he is by nature a social being, made to live and act with his fellows. From this nature flows the right to form associations.
A definition: the union of workers in defence of their rights
A trade union (from the Greek syndikos, "one who assists in a court of justice") is the association of persons practising the same trade or activity, united to study and defend their occupational rights and interests. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church describes it as an organization born of the right of association, which "contributes to the building up of the social order and of solidarity" and represents "an indispensable element of social life"[3]. The union is therefore not reducible to a pressure group: it is an intermediate body, one of those places where, between the individual and the State, persons exercise their social responsibility together — which links it directly to the principle of subsidiarity.
The foundation: a natural right, not a concession of the State
The Church's central thesis is that the right of association predates the State and does not depend on its goodwill. Leo XIII affirms it with a clarity that would remain the reference for all subsequent magisterium: private societies, and among them workers' associations, hold their right to exist "by nature itself", and civil society was instituted "to protect the natural right, not to annihilate it"[4].
"Private societies have existence only within civil society, of which they are as so many parts. It does not follow, however, speaking generally and considering only their nature, that it is in the power of the State to deny them existence. The right to existence was granted to them by nature itself, and civil society was instituted to protect the natural right, not to annihilate it." — Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 51, 15 May 1891[5]
The State may therefore regulate associations for the sake of the common good, and forbid those pursuing manifestly evil ends contrary to justice, but it can neither suppress them on principle, nor forbid their existence[6]. This is a decisive limit set against every totalitarian claim: freedom of association is one of the grounds on which a society's respect for real freedoms is tested.
A right confirmed by the whole magisterium
What Rerum Novarum states, the following popes confirm and broaden. Pius XII counts freedom of association among the worker's rights; John XXIII, in Pacem in Terris (1963), inscribes the "right of assembly and association" and that of founding occupational associations among the fundamental rights of the person[7]. The Second Vatican Council, in Gaudium et Spes, counts the right freely to found trade unions "among the fundamental rights of the human person"[8]. Far from being a reluctantly granted tolerance, trade unionism is thus received by the Church as the exercise of an inviolable natural right.
Rerum Novarum (1891): the founding recognition
The social doctrine on trade unions can only be understood by returning to its birth certificate. At the end of the nineteenth century, industrialization had thrown masses of workers into conditions of misery, without protection or representation, abandoned to "the greed of unrestrained competition"[9]. Faced with this "labour question", two answers confronted each other: economic liberalism, which let the market play, and revolutionary socialism, which advocated the abolition of private property and class struggle. Leo XIII traced a third way.
The context: the "labour question"
Published on 15 May 1891, Rerum Novarum ("Of New Things") is the first modern social encyclical. In it Leo XIII refuses both to sacralize market freedom and to subscribe to the socialist remedy, "which, far from solving the question, wrongs the workers themselves"[10]. His solution combines the employers' duty of justice, prudent State intervention and — this is the essential point here — the free association of workers.
The legacy of the guilds of arts and crafts
Leo XIII does not start from nothing: he recalls that "our ancestors long experienced the beneficial influence" of the old guilds of arts and crafts, those trade communities which structured labour under the Ancien Regime[11]. Without advocating an identical return, he calls for adapting these trade bodies to new conditions:
"Our ancestors long experienced the beneficial influence of these corporations. […] There is therefore no doubt that these corporations must be adapted to new conditions." — Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 49[12]
The pope rejoices that "societies of this kind […] are being formed everywhere" — whether they bring together workers alone or associate workers and employers[13]. The nascent Catholic trade unionism finds its charter there.
The right of association as a natural right
The underlying argument is anthropological. Man, conscious of the "weakness of his strength", is "impelled" by nature to "seek the cooperation of others"[14]. To associate is therefore neither a luxury nor a privilege: it is an extension of man's social nature, prior to any positive law. Leo XIII draws a direct consequence against the State that would dissolve workers' associations: it would be "in contradiction with itself", since the State exists to protect natural rights, and the right of association is one of them[15].
The first Catholic workers' associations
The encyclical did not fall into a void: it crowns and stimulates an already living movement. In France, the Oeuvre des cercles catholiques d'ouvriers, founded in 1871 by Albert de Mun and Rene de La Tour du Pin, and Leon Harmel's model factory at Val-des-Bois, were already experimenting with Christian workers' association[16]. In Germany, the Bishop of Mainz Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler (1811-1877), traditionally called the "great forerunner" of Leo XIII, had laid the foundations of a social Catholicism attentive to the world of labour[17]. Rerum Novarum gives them doctrinal legitimacy, and triggers across Europe the founding of Christian-inspired unions.
The development of the magisterium on trade unions
From Leo XIII to John Paul II, the teaching on trade unions became more precise without ever renouncing itself, accompanying the transformations of the world of work. Three texts mark the decisive stages: Quadragesimo Anno (1931), Gaudium et Spes (1965) and Laborem Exercens (1981).
Quadragesimo Anno (1931): occupational associations and intermediate bodies
Forty years after Rerum Novarum, Pius XI reaffirms in Quadragesimo Anno (1931) the workers' right of association and defends trade unions against those who contested them[18]. It is in this encyclical that he formulates the principle of subsidiarity and pleads for a society rich in intermediate bodies — associations, organized professions — between the individual and the State. Pius XI wishes occupational organizations to go beyond the mere logic of confrontation and collaborate for the good of the whole profession, employers and workers united in justice and "social charity"[19].
Pius XII, John XXIII: freedom of association and the rights of the person
Pius XII (1939-1958), in his radio messages and addresses, counts freedom of association among the worker's rights and warns against unions turned into instruments of a political power[20]. John XXIII, in Mater et Magistra (1961), describes "socialization" — the multiplication of relationships and associations in modern society — as a largely positive fact calling for increased worker participation[21]. In Pacem in Terris (1963), he inscribes in black and white the right to found occupational associations among the universal rights of the person.
Gaudium et Spes 68: the right to found unions and the right to strike
The Second Vatican Council gives trade unionism its most solemn recognition. Gaudium et Spes (1965), at no. 68, counts "among the fundamental rights of the human person" the workers' right freely to found unions which truly represent them, and to take part in them without fear of reprisals[22]. The same text addresses, for the first time at conciliar level, the right to strike:
"In the event of economic and social conflicts, every effort must be made to reach a peaceful solution. But recourse must always first be had to sincere dialogue between the parties; a strike can nevertheless, even in present circumstances, remain a necessary, though ultimate, means for the defence of one's own rights and the fulfilment of the just aspirations of workers. The paths of negotiation and dialogue should, however, be resumed as soon as possible, with a view to agreement." — Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, no. 68, 7 December 1965[23]
The strike is thus recognized as a real but subordinate right: an "ultimate means", to be used only when negotiation has failed, and always ordered to "just" aspirations.
- 15 May 1891Rerum Novarum — Leo XIII
The founding act: defence of the workers' natural right to associate; call to adapt the old guilds to the new times; joint condemnation of socialism and of unbridled liberalism.
- 15 May 1931Quadragesimo Anno — Pius XI
Reaffirmation of union rights; the principle of subsidiarity and praise of intermediate bodies; call to go beyond confrontation through "social charity".
- 15 May 1961Mater et Magistra — John XXIII
Growing "socialization" calls for increased worker participation in associations and in the life of the enterprise.
- 11 April 1963Pacem in Terris — John XXIII
The right to found occupational associations is counted among the universal and inviolable rights of the person.
- 7 December 1965Gaudium et Spes — Second Vatican Council
The right freely to found trade unions is counted "among the fundamental rights"; conciliar recognition of the right to strike as a "necessary, though ultimate, means".
- 14 September 1981Laborem Exercens — John Paul II
The charter of trade unions: "an indispensable element of social life", "mouthpiece of the struggle for social justice" waged "for the sake of the just good" — neither class struggle nor the instrument of a party.
- 2004Compendium of the Social Doctrine — Justice and Peace
A synthesis: unions "contribute to the building up of the social order and of solidarity" and are "an indispensable element of social life".
Laborem Exercens (1981): the charter of trade unions
No pope has spoken of trade unions with greater personal authority than John Paul II. A former quarry and factory worker in occupied Poland, a witness of communist oppression, he had seen manual labour at close hand and the workers' aspiration to dignity. His encyclical Laborem Exercens ("On Human Work"), published on 14 September 1981 for the ninetieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, devotes to trade unions an analysis (no. 20) that has become their charter of reference[24].
"An indispensable element of social life"
John Paul II begins by rooting the union in the right of association, "founded on the social nature of human work", then affirms its necessary character in industrial societies:
"On the basis of all these rights, and in connection with the need for the workers themselves to defend them, there appears another right: the right of association, that is, the right to associate, to unite, in order to defend the vital interests of those employed in the various professions. These unions bear the name of trade unions. […] Historical experience teaches that organizations of this type are an indispensable element of social life, particularly in modern industrialized societies." — Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 20, 14 September 1981[25]
The union is therefore neither a necessary evil nor a mere provisional corrective: it belongs to the normal structure of a well-ordered society of labour.
"Mouthpiece of the struggle for justice" — but "for the just good"
John Paul II does not fear the word "struggle": unions are the "mouthpiece of the struggle for social justice". But he immediately specifies its meaning, which has nothing Marxist about it. This struggle is "for" a good, not "against" persons:
"The characteristic feature of work is above all to unite men, and in this consists its social power: the power to build a community. […] This 'struggle' should be understood as a normal endeavour 'for the sake of' the just good […] ; but it is not a struggle 'against' others." — Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 20[26]
The nuance is crucial. For Marxism, class struggle is an insurmountable antagonism whose outcome is the victory of one camp; for the Church, trade-union action aims on the contrary at restoring justice and rebuilding the community of labour, employers and workers being ordered to a higher common good.
Neither class struggle, nor the instrument of a party
From this follow two warnings which John Paul II hammers home. First, the union must not become the organ of a class struggle erected into a system. Second, it must not let itself be reduced to a partisan instrument: its action "is not to 'play politics' in the sense given to this word today", and it must not become "an instrument for other ends"[27]. When a union turns into the transmission belt of a party, it betrays the workers it claims to serve — John Paul II, who had seen the "official" unions of the Soviet bloc reduced to organs of the Party, knew what he was talking about.
Labour before capital
This doctrine of trade unions belongs to the central thesis of Laborem Exercens: the priority of labour over capital. Capital — all the means of production — is only the accumulated fruit of men's labour; it is therefore at the service of labour, not the reverse[28]. To invert this order — to treat the working man as a mere instrument of production — is what John Paul II calls the "error of economism" and of "materialism", common to liberal capitalism and to collectivism[29]. The union is precisely one of the means by which society recalls that the worker is never a commodity.
The right to strike and its limits
The strike — the concerted stoppage of work to exert pressure in a dispute — is the most visible and most debated means of trade-union action. The Church recognizes its legitimacy, but frames it with precise conditions, since it affects the common good and the rights of third parties.
A legitimate means recognized by the Church
Against a certain ancient distrust, the Church has clearly recognized the right to strike. Gaudium et Spes had called it a "necessary, though ultimate, means"[30]. The Catechism of the Catholic Church formulates it in a balanced way:
"Recourse to a strike is morally legitimate when it cannot be avoided, or at least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit. It becomes morally unacceptable when accompanied by violence, or when objectives are included that are not directly linked to working conditions or are contrary to the common good." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2435[31]
The conditions of legitimacy
From this text emerge the criteria which make a strike a just act: it must be an unavoidable or necessary recourse — that is, come after the failure of dialogue and negotiation — and aim at a benefit proportionate to the disruption it imposes. The strike is therefore never an absolute right to be exercised on a whim: it is an "ultimate means", whose legitimacy is measured by its cause, its proportionality and its methods.
When the strike becomes illegitimate
The same Catechism states the bounds beyond which the strike ceases to be moral. It becomes illegitimate in three cases: when accompanied by violence; when assigned objectives unrelated to working conditions (for example a purely political objective with no link to the occupation); and when it is contrary to the common good, notably when it holds entire populations hostage by paralysing essential services[32]. Social doctrine thus recalls that workers on strike remain answerable for the harm they cause to innocent third parties: one's right stops where another's begins.
The counterfeits and temptations of trade unionism
Because the union wields real power, it is exposed to deviations which divert it from its end. Distinguishing authentic trade unionism from its counterfeits is a requirement of social doctrine, which has always refused to canonize "the labour movement" wholesale and without discernment.
The following table contrasts the union as the Church wants it with its principal deviations.
| Deviation | How it imitates trade unionism | Why the Church rejects it |
|---|---|---|
| Class-struggle unionism | Mobilizes workers powerfully | Erects antagonism into a system; pits one camp against another instead of serving justice and community (LE 20) |
| Subservience to a party | Calls itself "committed" and political | Makes the union the instrument of a power; betrays workers for the benefit of an apparatus (LE 20) |
| Selfish corporatism | Defends one occupation effectively | Defends sectional privileges against the common good and at the expense of other workers |
| The "yellow" union | Keeps the appearance of representation | Manipulated by employers or by power, it does not truly represent workers (cf. GS 68) |
| Violence and sabotage | Wants to exert "stronger pressure" | Resorts to intrinsically unjust means, condemned by CCC 2435 |
Class struggle versus harmony between the classes
The major temptation, historically, is that of class struggle. Marxism made it the very engine of history: society is said to be divided into irreconcilable classes, and workers' emancipation is said to come through confrontation and overthrow. The Church recognizes the reality of injustices and the legitimacy of defending workers, but she refuses to make struggle the principle. Already in Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII opposed harmony to antagonism:
"The great mistake in this matter is to believe that the two classes are enemies born to fight each other, as if nature had armed rich and poor to battle relentlessly against one another. […] In the human body, the members, despite their diversity, adapt marvellously to one another […]. So, in society, the two classes are destined by nature to unite harmoniously in perfect balance." — Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, nos. 15-16[33]
The Christian objective is therefore not the victory of one camp, but the collaboration of the classes in justice — which has nothing to do with a call to resignation: justice must be real, rights effectively recognized, and it is precisely the union's role to defend them.
When the union fights the wrong battle
A second deviation lies in wait: selfish corporatism, where the union no longer defends justice but acquired privileges, even at the expense of other workers (the young, the precarious, the unemployed) or of the common good. The Compendium warns that unions "are called" to care not only for their members, but for the whole world of labour and of society[34]. A union which withdrew into defending a privileged category would betray the workers' solidarity which is its very reason for being.
Christian trade unionism: a living tradition
Social doctrine would be mere theory had it not engendered works. From the nineteenth century to our own day, Christians have founded unions inspired by the Gospel, refusing both liberal and Marxist materialism.
The origins: workers' clubs, Harmel, La Tour du Pin
Even before Rerum Novarum, French social Catholicism had laid the first milestones: the Oeuvre des cercles catholiques d'ouvriers (1871) of Albert de Mun and La Tour du Pin, and Leon Harmel's factory-parish at Val-des-Bois, where factory councils and relief funds were pioneered. In Germany, Bishop von Ketteler had opened the way. These pioneers sought to reconcile the working world and the Church, which the industrial revolution and socialist anticlericalism had driven apart.
The CFTC and the Christian unions
The institutional outcome, in France, was the founding in 1919 of the Confederation francaise des travailleurs chretiens (CFTC), which explicitly claims the Church's social doctrine and Rerum Novarum[35]. Similar Christian confederations developed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, forming a trade unionism distinct from revolutionary unionism, attached to negotiation, to the dignity of the person and to the rejection of class struggle. At the same period, the Belgian priest Joseph Cardijn founded the Jeunesse ouvriere chretienne (JOC, 1925), whose method — "see, judge, act" — would form generations of Christian worker militants[36].
Solidarnosc: a union that shook an empire
The most striking example is Polish. In August 1980, strikes at the Gdansk shipyards gave birth to Solidarnosc ("Solidarity"), the first free and independent union of the Soviet bloc, led by the electrician Lech Walesa. Deeply marked by Catholicism — its militants prayed, went to confession, displayed the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa — Solidarnosc embodies a trade unionism uniting social demands with spiritual resistance to totalitarianism[37]. Supported from afar by John Paul II, whose first journey to Poland (1979) had reawakened national hope, the movement contributed decisively to the peaceful fall of communism in Eastern Europe. The very name of the union — Solidarity — declared its source: workers' solidarity as a force for justice and freedom.
A convergence of the social and the spiritual
Solidarnosc concretely illustrates what Laborem Exercens was to formulate the following year: a union can be the "mouthpiece of the struggle for social justice" without falling into class struggle, because its struggle is "for" man's dignity and not "against" persons. Where official communist unionism enslaved workers to the Party, Solidarnosc gave them back their voice — confirming John Paul II's warning against unions reduced to an instrument of political domination.
Trade unions today: new challenges
Social doctrine does not stop in 1981: it keeps applying to a transformed world of work. The Compendium (2004) and the recent popes point out the new stakes.
Globalization and the international solidarity of workers
Globalization has made workers interdependent across borders: an offshoring decision taken on one continent affects employment on another. The Compendium calls unions to a new international solidarity, going beyond the defence of national workers alone to reach the most exploited in the world[38]. Benedict XVI, in Caritas in Veritate (2009), invites union organizations to broaden their outlook beyond their members, notably towards workers in poor countries[39].
Precariousness, the service economy, new forms of work
The rise of precarious, self-employed or "uberized" work, and the decline of classic industrial wage labour, weaken traditional forms of representation. Pope Francis multiplied appeals for workers excluded from all protection, recalling that "work is necessary" to dignity, and criticizing an economy which "excludes" and treats man as waste[40]. Trade unionism is thus challenged to represent those who have no voice: the precarious, migrants, informal workers.
Beyond sectional defence: the common good
The guiding thread remains that of Laborem Exercens: the union finds its greatness when it defends justice without withdrawing into itself. The Compendium recalls that union action must open itself to "cooperation" and to the common good, not freeze into antagonism[41]. A trade unionism faithful to social doctrine is one which articulates solidarity (no one must be abandoned) and subsidiarity (intermediate bodies must live), in service of the dignity of every worker.
Work and trade unions in the light of the Divine Will
The spirituality of the Divine Will transmitted to Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947) sheds an interior light on the social doctrine of work. John Paul II, in Laborem Exercens, had sketched a true "spirituality of work": through his labour, man shares in the Creator's work and is even associated with the redemptive work of Christ, "who devoted most of the years of his life on earth to manual work at a carpenter's bench"[42]. The Divine Will carries this intuition to its summit: the soul which works in the Fiat never does so for its own interest alone, but in the name of all creation, transforming each ordinary act — the worker's gesture as the peasant's — into a divine act offered for the good of all[43]. The justice which unions defend finds there its deepest root: not only rendering to each his due, but recognizing in every worker the living image of God called to reign with him. It is the highest form of what social doctrine calls, in the order of structures and rights, the justice of work.
To go further
- Solidarity — the principle of which unions are one of the great implementations: the "solidarity of working people".
- The just wage — the first object of union demands: remuneration worthy of the worker and his family.
- The common good — the horizon which measures the legitimacy of strikes and union action.
- Subsidiarity — why unions, as intermediate bodies, are necessary between the individual and the State.
- Private property according to the Church and The universal destination of goods — the doctrinal background of the labour-capital conflict.
- Communism, Socialism and its limits, Economic liberalism and Capitalism and its limits — the ideologies between which the Church traced her way.
- Political charity — the "social" charity which must crown the justice of labour.
Notes and References
Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 15 May 1891, nos. 50-51 (official French text, vatican.va): the right to form private associations, and notably workers' associations, is a natural right flowing from man's social nature.
1Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 14 September 1981, no. 20: unions are "an indispensable element of social life" and the "mouthpiece of the struggle for social justice", a struggle waged "for the sake of" the just good and not "against" others.
2Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004, no. 305: "In pursuing their specific ends at the service of the common good, union organizations contribute to the building up of the social order and of solidarity and therefore represent an indispensable element of social life." (The neighbouring formula "an element that cannot be dispensed with" belongs to Laborem Exercens, no. 20: men's union to defend their rights "remains a constructive factor of social order and solidarity, one that cannot be dispensed with".)
3Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 51 (usual numbering of the printed editions; the online French text is unnumbered): private societies, including workers' associations, hold their right to exist "by nature itself"; civil society exists "to protect the natural right, not to annihilate it". Verified on vatican.va (French text).
4Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 51 (usual numbering of the printed editions), full quotation of the passage (official French text, vatican.va: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/fr/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html). English rendering in the body.
5Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 52: the State may regulate and, where needed, forbid associations whose ends are contrary to honesty, justice or public safety, but it cannot suppress on principle the right to associate.
6Saint John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, 11 April 1963, nos. 23-24: the "right of assembly and association" and the right to found occupational associations count among the fundamental rights of the person.
7Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 7 December 1965, no. 68: the right freely to found unions and to take part in them is counted "among the fundamental rights of the human person".
8Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 3: denunciation of the condition of workers "abandoned, isolated and defenceless, to the mercy of inhuman masters and to the greed of unrestrained competition".
9Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 49: recall of the "beneficial influence" of the old guilds of arts and crafts and call to adapt them to new conditions. Verified on vatican.va.
11Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 49, quotation (French text, vatican.va). English rendering in the body.
12Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 49: the pope rejoices that "societies of this kind are being formed everywhere", composed of workers alone or mixed (workers and employers).
13Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 50: "Man's experience of the narrowness of his powers urges and impels him to seek the cooperation of others." Verified on vatican.va.
14Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, nos. 51-52: to forbid workers' associations on principle would be for the State to contradict itself, since it is instituted to protect natural rights.
15The Oeuvre des cercles catholiques d'ouvriers was founded in 1871 by Albert de Mun (1841-1914) and Rene de La Tour du Pin (1834-1924); Leon Harmel (1829-1915) developed at Val-des-Bois (Reims) a model factory pioneering social Catholicism.
16Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler (1811-1877), Bishop of Mainz, forerunner of German social Catholicism; called by tradition the "great forerunner" of Leo XIII.
17Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, 15 May 1931, nos. 30-38 and 87: reaffirmation of the workers' right of association and defence of trade unions.
18Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, no. 88: social justice must be animated by "social charity", the soul of the social order; call for the collaboration of the occupations beyond confrontation.
19Venerable Pius XII (pontificate 1939-1958): in his radio messages and social addresses (notably the 1941 Pentecost radio message for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum), he counts freedom of association among the worker's rights and warns against unions enslaved to political power.
20Saint John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, 15 May 1961, nos. 59-67: "socialization" (the multiplication of relationships and associations) calls for increased worker participation.
21Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, no. 68: "Among the fundamental rights of the human person must be counted the right of workers freely to found associations which truly represent them […] as well as the right freely to take part in the activity of these associations, without risk of reprisals."
22Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, no. 68 (official French text, vatican.va): on economic and social conflicts and the strike as a "necessary, though ultimate, means". English rendering in the body.
23Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 14 September 1981, published for the 90th anniversary of Rerum Novarum (1891). The analysis of trade unions occupies no. 20.
24Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 20: "On the basis of all these rights […] there appears another right […] : the right to associate […] These unions bear the name of trade unions. […] Historical experience teaches that organizations of this type are an indispensable element of social life, particularly in modern industrialized societies." (official French text, vatican.va: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html)
25Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 20: this "struggle" should be understood as a normal endeavour "for the sake of" the just good, "but it is not a struggle 'against' others"; "the characteristic feature of work is above all to unite men, and in this consists its social power: the power to build a community" (French text, vatican.va). English rendering in the body.
26Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 20 (official French text, vatican.va): the role of unions "is not to 'play politics' in the sense given to this word today"; unions "do not have the character of 'political parties' struggling for power" and must not become "an instrument for other ends".
27Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 12: the principle of the priority of labour over capital; capital is the accumulated fruit of labour and is ordered to it.
28Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 13: the "error of economism" and of materialism, which treats work as a mere commodity — an error common to liberalism and collectivism.
29Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, no. 68: the strike as a "necessary, though ultimate, means" (see note above).
30Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2435: "Recourse to a strike is morally legitimate when it cannot be avoided, or at least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit. It becomes morally unacceptable when accompanied by violence, or when objectives are included that are not directly linked to working conditions or are contrary to the common good." Verified text (official French edition, vatican.va).
31Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2435: the three bounds of an illegitimate strike — violence, objectives unrelated to working conditions, harm to the common good.
32Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, nos. 15-16 (official French text, vatican.va): "The great mistake […] is to believe that the two classes are enemies born to fight each other […] ; […] the two classes are destined by nature to unite harmoniously in perfect balance." English rendering in the body.
33Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004, nos. 307-308: unions are called to care for the whole world of labour and of society, not for their members' interests alone.
34The Confederation francaise des travailleurs chretiens (CFTC) was founded in 1919; it explicitly claims the Church's social doctrine. The CFDT sprang from it after the 1964 deconfessionalization.
35The Jeunesse ouvriere chretienne (JOC) was founded in 1925 by Abbe (later Cardinal) Joseph Cardijn (1882-1967); its "see, judge, act" method marked Christian worker militancy.
36Solidarnosc ("Solidarity"), the first free union of the Soviet bloc, was born of the Gdansk shipyard strikes in August 1980, led by Lech Walesa (born 1943, Nobel Peace Prize 1983, President of Poland 1990-1995). A movement deeply marked by Polish Catholicism and supported by John Paul II.
37Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 309: call for new forms of international union solidarity, in the face of globalization.
38Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 29 June 2009, no. 64: invitation to union organizations to broaden their outlook beyond their members, notably towards workers in developing countries.
39Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (2013, no. 53: the "economy of exclusion") and Laudato Si' (2015) on the dignity and necessity of work: defence of precarious, migrant and informal workers deprived of protection.
40Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 306: union action must open itself to cooperation and to the common good, without freezing into antagonism or shrinking to a partisan role.
41Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, nos. 24-27 ("Elements for a spirituality of work"): through work, man shares in the Creator's work; Christ, the "man of work", sanctified labour by working at Saint Joseph's bench — the Christ who "devoted most of the years of his life on earth" to manual work.
42Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, Volume 14, dictation of 19 October 1922: "In the same way, the soul who lives in my Will embraces everyone. Nothing escapes her. She acts in the name of all and omits nothing." The body of the article paraphrases this passage: the soul acting in the Divine Will works in the name of all, transforming each ordinary act into a divine act offered for the good of all creation (a constant theme of Luisa Piccarreta's writings, The Book of Heaven).
43