Unions made Australia: Cardinal George Pell

04 February 2009

The leading voice of the Catholic community in Australia told the AWU national conference that unions have a significant role to play in defending and creating jobs in the current economic crisis.

Cardinal Pell and Paul Howes

" Unions have played a major part for the good in making Australia what it is today, and I regret the slow and steady decline in union membership that has occurred over the last twenty or so years," Cardinal George Pell told more than 300 delegates and observers attending the AWU National conference.

" I particularly want to commend the AWU for making jobs the main focus of this year's national conference. "

A first for the Cardinal

Cardinal Pell told the conference that this was the first time he had ever been invited to address a large national union meeting.

He told delegates that in the age of multinationals we need unions more than ever to act as a counter-vailing force to the powers of owners and executives.

Cardinal Pell at AWU conference

Unions have a significant role to play

" Unions have a significant role to play, both in defending and creating jobs, and in keeping workers who have lost their jobs connected to an invaluable network of support and resources during the current crisis," the Cardinal said in his speech.

And the Cardinal praised the fact that the AWU understood that it had a wider responsibility to Australian society.

" The banner on the AWU website boasts that the union represents not just its 130,000 or so members but their families as well. I like that."

Catholic church early support for Australian unions

Cardinal Pell pointed out to the AWU conference that the Church in Australia had been an early supporter of the trade union movement – and a big supporter of the bitter strike by maritime workers in 1890.

 “ My predecessor in Sydney, Cardinal Patrick Moran, supported the 1890 maritime strike, expressing his belief that ‘the officers, the seamen and the wharf labourers are all justified in asking for proper wages, and I do not think their demands are unreasonable or excessive”.

Unions critical to improving global economy

Just last week Pope Benedict XVI  said that in the face of a broad economic crisis, a strong union movement will be critical to recovery and rebuilding a fairer, more just market.

The Catholic News Service reported that the Pope spoke out of the importance of unions at a meeting of the Confederation of Italian Labor Unions, Italy's largest union federation, where Pope Benedict said

" The great challenge and the great opportunity posed by today’s worrisome economic crisis is to find a new synthesis between the common good and the market, between capital and labor. And in this regard, union organizations can make a significant contribution. "

The AWU National Conference

For more information about the AWU National Conference visit the AWU's special National Conference website.