Saint Joseph the Worker
May 1 is recognized around the world as International Workers Day, and in the Catholic Church as the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. In either case, it is a day to recognize and support what the Church calls the Dignity of Work, and the Rights of Workers.
Right now is a strange and unusual time to be celebrating work. Unemployment is at record numbers as a global pandemic forces most of us to stay home.
A recent NPR story tells us that European countries, whose economies have been hit just as hard as ours in the US, have not had nearly as many unemployment claims as we have. The reason, apparently, is that while our relief money goes mostly to corporations laying off their workforce, other countries give their relief money to the people who need it.
Meanwhile, some workers, such as health care, food service, and grocery, are being lauded as heroic and essential — even if their employers don’t seem particularly keen on providing them with the essential safety precautions or sufficient pay.
And now the government is pushing to send them back to work — to potentially expose our nation’s workers to a deadly pandemic on the day set aside to honor them. Instead of worrying about the health and safety of these returning workers, President Trump and Senator McConnell have emphasized protecting corporate liability. But then, the United States has never been known to give much respect to its workers.
But many of our nation’s workers are planning a good old-fashioned May Day strike. Amazon, Target, Whole Foods, and Instacart are being particularly singled out as failing to protect the health and well-being of its workers — even in the best of times.
Two fundamental principles of Catholic economic teaching are that the economy is at the service of the people, not people at the service of the economy; and that economics must always be judged first on how the poorest are faring. The United States consistently fails at both these standards. Right now is a good opportunity to put our collective foot down, support our essential workers, and demand for them the safety, the respect, and the pay their labor deserves.
For More Reading:
Recent Comments