Faith & Labor: Reflecting on Brother Fain’s Four Pillars for the UAW

By Father Michael Seavey & Rabbi Hillel Katzir

When UAW President Shawn Fain addressed the Maine AFL-CIO state convention in Bangor in October, he listed four foundational pillars for their union and contract negotiations. Those pillars are “A Living Wage," “Adequate Health Care," “Retirement Security," and “Our Time. This is the second in series of articles by Father Mike Seavey and Rabbi Hillel Katzir that takes each of these foundational pillars and manifest the Faith/Labor connection. You can read the first column here.

The second pillar Shawn Fain presented for collective bargaining is “adequate health care." He reminded us that The United States is the richest country in the history of the world, yet ranks dead last among affluent nations providing health care. “That’s criminal!” he stated, “Health care is a right, a human right!”

The Faith/Labor connection with health care is strong and durable. Especially Christian and Jewish faith communities have provided health care and advocated for adequate health care for centuries and millennia. Many Roman Catholics and other Christians entered healthcare professions as “a calling from God” to spend their life caring for others.

Judaism teaches that it is a religious duty to save an endangered life, [so that people are able to live and fulfill God’s teachings about care of each other and for the world]. Based on that biblical law, the great medieval Rabbi and physician Maimonides taught that it is also a religious duty to provide health care to every person. All four gospel writers provide several accounts of Jesus healing the sick from paralysis, blindness, leprosy, speech and hearing disorders, mental illness and bleeding diseases. They were also among the poorest of people Jesus encountered.

From the Roman Catholic perspective, there is a sustained commitment providing health care to the poor. Catholic religious orders of sisters or brothers provided health care in their particular geographical area, or were sent to distant countries providing health care to all they encountered. This has a special history in our own State of Maine. On November 20, 1878, three Catholic Sisters of Charity arriving in Lewiston from Quebec, were welcomed by 300 people gathered at the railroad station. They came, responding to the needs of French-Canadian working-class families now laboring in the several mills and factories in the area.

After teaching children during the day, they visited the sick in their homes. They were the first home health care workers in the State of Maine. Within several years, more sisters, brothers, and Catholic priests arrived, expanding services for the Lewiston/Auburn Catholic working class. This scene was repeated by other religious orders and secular clergy in several other communities across the state. Catholic religious brothers and sisters followed working class immigrant families providing health care, education, and other social services. And most if not all of their services were available to everyone, regardless of religious creed, national origin or income status.

Over the past 65 years, Official Catholic Teaching utilized “human rights” language expressing the dignity of the human person, created in the image of God. This language further developed naming “basic health care” as a human right for all people. Our nation is heading in the wrong direction in this regard. Federal programs and funding have been eliminated or curtailed with devastating impacts on the working poor and other disadvantaged people. Faith communities and labor unions joining forces advocating “basic health care as a human right” can be a powerful force for justice.