Aunty, why was joining labor unions banned among Adventists?
21 October 2024 |
Dear Aunt Sevvy,
Growing up, I heard so much against Adventists joining workers’ unions. It was considered by some a sin, and people were denied positions of service in the church if it were found out they had joined one. My father lost many benefits by not joining a union.
Where did that come from, and why was the church so adamant about this issue?
Signed, Why or Why Not?
Dear Why Not:
The short answer is that the objection came from Ellen White. The longer answer is more complicated.
At the dawn of the industrial era, big corporations took terrible, even fatal, advantage of workers. It is hard for us now even to imagine how horribly underground miners, for example, were treated. Organized labor helped to end child labor, overly long work-weeks, starvation pay, unsafe conditions, and being remunerated in scrip could only be used at the overpriced company store.
But the labor movement was problematic: many Christians were understandably concerned about the violence and vandalism that accompanied strikes.
Ellen White admitted that “In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed.” Yet it wasn’t big business, but the workers’ response, to which she most objected. “Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy,” she wrote.
Among her objections:
- It was a “confederacy with the world,” not unlike marrying someone outside your faith. Unions expected workers to act together, thus hindering their free choice. She wrote, “Trades unions will be formed, and those who refuse to join these unions will be marked men.” She may have had Sabbath-keeping in mind
- She says that if unions caught on, it would be very difficult for the church’s institutions, where people were expected to work for sacrificial wages, to operate.
- She associates organized labor with cities, which she insisted wasn’t where Adventists should be. She wrote:
The turmoil and confusion that filled these cities, the conditions brought about by the labor unions and the strikes, would prove a great hindrance to our work. Men are seeking to bring those engaged in the different trades under bondage to certain unions. This is not God’s planning, but the planning of a power that we should in no wise acknowledge. God’s Word is fulfilling; the wicked are binding themselves up in bundles ready to be burned. (2 Selected Messages, p.143).
The founders of our church were Yankee farmers and independent businessmen. Organized labor arose among immigrants in urban factories and remote coalfields. Many were Roman Catholic Irish, Italian, or Eastern Europeans workers. These were people Adventists were never comfortable with.
Over a century has passed since Ellen White gave her counsel. Not all unions are the same. Some are professional organizations that police the profession for both customers and workers. They win concessions that benefit all workers—even those who opt out.
Aunty believes it is an oversimplification to condemn all such organizations just because they’re called “unions.” They must be evaluated by their fruits, just as individuals are.
Aunt Sevvy
Aunt Sevvy has collected her answers into a book! You can get it from Amazon by clicking here.
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