ABSTRACT
The Catholic Church’s attitude toward strikes in the United States is complicated, sometimes inconsistent and contradictory, but always significant. The complexity and contradictory character of the church’s role arise from tensions between Catholic social teaching, church practice and community, and individual decisions. The Catholic Church’s social teachings have evolved throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, permitting and then encouraging Catholic involvement in unions. Catholic Church practice in different periods and regions has its own history, however—a history that is not always completely consistent with the church’s teachings. Finally, Catholic communities and individuals may act on their own interpretation of the teachings and understanding of the practices or independently of them. We can say, nevertheless, that since the late nineteenth century the Catholic Church has accepted the fact that Catholics will join labor unions, bargain collectively, and strike. Catholic labor leaders have led strikes; Catholic activists have organized them; and Catholic workers in every period have participated in them.
