Why does the Catholic Church support unions?

The threat to strike was based on workers' distress about issues related to pay and having no time off for sickness or medical appointments. Thankfully for rail workers -- and the entire country -- both sides were able to come to a compromise and a deal was brokered. (More recent news reports say the deal may be in jeopardy, however. The vote by the 12 rail unions, made up of nearly 125,000 rail workers, will be later this week.)

One of the issues that comes up when hearing about a potential mass strike is the role unions play and whether they are helpful or problematic. The Catholic Church has long supported the concept of unions. Aleteia asked Andreas Widmar, a Professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and the author of The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship, why this is so.

We also asked Professor Widmer what Catholics should consider when they're digesting news related to workers' rights and labor laws. He said that it’s important to remember that unions are a right of workers, even if what they ask at times is inconvenient or uncomfortable. He said it's also important to recognize that labor and capital are not adversaries, but complementary partners in the work and creativity of a company.