In the midst of the intense demagoguery surrounding the Employee Free Choice Act, it is refreshing to read what someone above the fray has to say about what labor could and should be doing with its time and resources.  Catholic News Service reports that in a speech on Tuesday, June 19, Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles said that unions should be reaching out to "the poor and vulnerable."  Bishop Zavala noted that "All workers' rights are based in the inherent dignity of the human person" and "Unions grew out of the struggle for social justice, not class struggle." 

"Throughout its history, organized labor has stood up for the poor and vulnerable – protecting new immigrants, fighting the exploitation of child laborers and demonstrating for civil rights," he said at the national conference of the Interfaith Worker Justice network.

"These efforts must continue in the present economy," he added. "Unions must reach out to new audiences of the poor and vulnerable, including immigrants, seasonal and migrant workers and those who lack the skills to participate in the current work environment. Unions must look beyond the self-interest of their current members and work for the good of those who have no voice or power."

Bishop Zavala may or may not have been persuaded by labor's religious outreach programs to support the EFCA.   The article doesn't say.  But he doesn't speak of workers' rights and social justice in terms of making it easy for the union to organize technicians at Verizon Business.  He speaks of protecting workers against real abuses. 

If labor's reform efforts were focused on providing appropriate funding to the National Labor Relations Board to allow it address truly rogue employers it might find true bipartisan support and might actually accomplish something meaningful.  Instead, labor is unfortunately attempting to paint all employers as bad in a transparent effort to tilt the playing field in its own favor.  As we've said all along, the NLRB has the power to punish those few employers who refuse to abide by the law -- it just doesn't have the funding to seek extraordinary remedies very often.  There is no need to throw the right of every employee  to a secret ballot out with the bathwater.