Donald Trump and the rights and dignity of workers
by Gerald J. Beyer | May. 13, 2016
I feel compelled to respond to former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Francis Rooney's article "The Catholic Case for Trump is about Jobs and Wages." While it contains a grain of truth, Catholics should not see in Donald Trump a friend of the church's teaching on the dignity and rights of workers.
On May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, I stood in St. Peter's Square with a group of leaders from Catholic grassroots organizations, trade unions, youth movements, employers' associations, educational institutions, the International Labor Organization, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Caritas Internationalis. We gathered in Rome to participate in the Global Seminar on Sustainable Development and the Future of Work in the Context of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Pope Francis blessed the group and charged us with our task: "I hope" -- he said -- "that the event will sensitize the authorities, political and economic institutions and civil society in order to promote a model of development that will safeguard human dignity within full respect for labor and environmental legislation."
At the end of our seminar, we issued a statement of commitment and action in which we pledged to "promote dignity, dialogue, and the promotion of human rights and international labor standards as the core of any sustainable development policies."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/donald-trump-and-rights-and-dignity-workers