The struggle for justice among farm workers is a long and poignant one. Cesar Chavez, the founder of United Farm workers, is now held up as an exemplary Catholic in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. And today, the struggle for justice and dignity of the (mostly immigrant) farm workers – who spend day after day doing backbreaking labor for paltry pay, exposed to hazardous pesticides, and living in company-owned labor camps – continues. But sadly, they have no ally in the governor of California. Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have made farm workers eligible for overtime pay if they worked more than eight hours a day, and given them the right to a single day off a week. Not much to ask for, but still too much for Schwarzenegger. He ignored the pleas of priests and labor groups, claiming he didn’t want to put the growers at a competitive disadvantage.
This is a central moral issue. The Church has been talking about this ever since Rerum Novarum, and Gaudium Et Spes listed “disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit” as one of the greatest evils. It’s time to call out Schwarzenegger, and others like him, for a gross violation of Catholic social teaching.
(Hat tip – Faith in Public Life).
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In