Mahony Speaks on Labor-Church Relations

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who in 1991 fought efforts by archdiocesan cemetery workers to unionize, has told national labor leaders and a worker justice committee that both the church and labor must do more to live up to their highest ideals.

“While our church has sought to stand with workers, our record is not pure. Neither is the labor movement’s,” Mahony told the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice meeting recently in Los Angeles. “We must continue to dialogue about our common goals and not be afraid to confront each other when things go wrong. We must challenge both institutions to live up to our principles and to seek the common good.”

Mahony repeated his call for an ongoing dialogue in separate remarks Tuesday before the national convention of the AFL-CIO meeting in Los Angeles.

Mahony was in the center of a bitter 3 1/2-year struggle in 1991 when the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union attempted to organize gravediggers at the archdiocese’s 11 cemeteries. In October 1991, the union lost a representation vote after Mahony led a campaign against the union.

In his remarks to the interfaith worker justice committee meeting at the downtown Biltmore Hotel, Mahony made no specific reference to the old controversy. But Linda Lotz, interfaith coordinator for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, called Mahony’s speech “truly historic” and “a wonderful step forward.”