The Association of Catholic Trade Unionists was a labor organization associated with the Catholic Worker newspaper founded in February 1937. The organization encouraged

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

's March 1937 anti-communist encyclical ''

Divini Redemptoris ''Divini Redemptoris'' (Latin for the promise of a Divine Redeemer) is an anti-communist encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI. It was published on 19 March 1937. In this encyclical, the pope sets out to "expose once more in a brief synthesis the ...

'' and promoted mainstream Catholic teachings in the United States labor movement, serving as a hub for Catholics opposed to the growing influence of

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

and other radical trade union organizers such as those affiliated with the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

. Not a union itself, it sought to “educate, stimulate, and coordinate on a Christian basis the action of the Catholic workingmen and women in the American labor movement” and played an important role in opposing the left-wing of a number of unions, including the

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), is an independent democratic rank-and-file labor union representing workers in both the private and public sectors across the United States. UE was one of the first unions to be c ...

(UE) and

Transport Workers Union of America Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article disc ...

(TWUA). It played a particularly important role in building the

International Union of Electrical Workers The International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) was a North American labor union representing workers in the electrical manufacturing industry. While consistently using the acronym IUE, it took on several full names during its history, origin ...

, which split from UE. In late 1939, it described the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

(CIO) as the “breeding nest of American Communism.”Lubienecki, P. (2015). Catholic Labor Education and the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. Instructing Workers to Christianize the Workplace. Journal of Catholic Education, 18 (2). http://dx.doi.org/10.15365/joce.1802062015 The group declined following World War II and eventually dissolved in the late 1960s.

Notable members

* John C. Cort * John F. Henning *

Charles Owen Rice Monsignor Charles Owen Rice (November 21, 1908 – November 13, 2005) was a Catholic priest and an American labor activist. Background He was born in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants. His mother died when he was four, and he and his ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Association of Catholic Trade Unionists 1937 establishments in New York (state) 1960s disestablishments in the United States Anti-communist organizations in the United States Catholic trade unions