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CHURCH & LABOR: A Reflective History of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese & the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor

Charles K. Murray
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In 1987, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Cleveland Federation of Labor, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland published the following history of their interrelationship. 

FOREWARD

On this the 100th birthday of the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, we at the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland would like to express our congratulations to the Federation and all its members. We are proud of the many contributions of organized labor to the Cleveland area both in assuring the quality of life for its members as well as their support for the betterment of the community.

We would like to take this opportunity to reflect on our shared history. We share both in our constituencies and our dreams. We share a mutual commitment to the betterment of the worker. We also share a recognition of the dignity of every human person and the dignity of human work. As we state in the U.S. Bishops' recent pastoral ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR ALL: Catholic Social Teaching & the U.S. Economy "The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured."

The following is intended as a brief overview of the significant events and people in the interrelated development of the Cleveland AFL-CIO and the Cleveland Catholic Diocese. We offer it as a reflection on past cooperation as well as a basis of hope in even greater collaborative action in the future.

Sincerely yours,

Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, Bishop of Cleveland

PREFACE

A group of us involved with the Cleveland Catholic Diocese and Cleveland Labor, realizing that this is the 100th birthday of the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation, decided to prepare a statement expressing our close interrelationship. What started as a short essay quickly grew into a major treatise and could have become a book. The Church's rich tradition of Social Teaching, most recently seen in the U.S. Catholic Bishops' pastoral ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR ALL: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Econo-my, and our history of cooperative action with labor have been significant factors in the development of the local economy and community.

I would like to especially thank Mary Englert, Catholic Universe Bulletin and past president of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO; Christine Krosel, Diocesan Archivist; Mary Ann Stanton, Marriage & Family Office and past co-worker with Msgr Francis Carney; Jean Tussey, Cleveland AFL-CIO, Labor History Committee; and Russell Schroeder, staff representative of the Cleveland AFL-CIO and church activist, for their contributions in the preparation of this document.

Charles K. Murray, Associate Director

Commission on Catholic Community Action, Diocese of Cleveland

BACKGROUND

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese was founded in April of 1847 with the installation of Bishop Amadeus Rappe, a native of France, as its first leader. This coincided with the early stages of the Industrial Revolution and the early immigrations to our area, especially those from Germany and Ireland. These factors combined to provide the roots for Cleveland area industrial and social development.

It is important to note that events far from Cleveland which were to have an impact on the interrelationship of the Catholic Church and the Labor movement. With the Industrial Revolution's beginnings in Germany, Bishop Wilhelm Ketteler, of Mainz, was to reflect on the disruption it was creating for the laborers.

In 1864, he prophetically spoke out for the dignity of the workers and the need to protect that dignity from the unbridled effects of this new form of enterprise. Bishop Ketteler went so far as to support the workers' in the formation of their own workers associations, and in 1869, he called for such urgent reforms as increases in wages, shorter hours of labor, and the prohibition of child-labor in factories.

The bishop was not alone in his quest for justice for oppressed workers. In England, in 1874, Henry Edward Cardinal Manning wrote "THE RIGHTS AND DIGNITY OF LABOUR" in support of London dock-workers.

The Fribourg Union was formed in 1884 at the Catholic Fribourg University in Switzerland as a study group of Church people to analyze the signs of their economic times in relation to Scripture and the Church's social teaching. Participants called for state intervention to assure the right of workers to form separate unions, affirmed every person's right to work, called for a living wage, and insurance against sickness, accidents, and unemploy-ment. This movement in cooperation with the labor associations, was to greatly influence the more progressive state-sponsored initiatives throughout Western Europe.

The Knights of Labor was an early attempt at a comprehensive federation of labor. Various trades were represented, as well as small businessmen and farmers. The organization, which had over 750,000 members throughout North America in the late 1870's, was under attack by a number of conservative Canadian and American Catholic bishops as a secret society. James Cardinal Gibbons, of Balti-more, went to the Vatican in 1886 to successfully defend the Knights against erroneous charges.

As the Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium, from 1843-1846, Bishop Gioacchino Vincenzo Pecci, who was to become Pope Leo XIII, saw for himself the poverty and oppression of the mineworkers. He was also well aware of the work of Bishop Ketteler, Cardinal Manning, and Cardinal Gibbons. Drawing on this background in 1891, Pope Leo issued his famous encylical RERUM NOVARUM (Condition of the Working Classes). This document, considered to be the "Magna Charta" of Catholic social teaching, called for the right of workers to form associations of their choosing to provide for mutual support and to have the power to bring about social change.

CLEVELAND DEVELOPMENTS

The Cleveland area, meanwhile, was experiencing a period of great population and industrial growth. In 1872 Bishop Richard Gilmour succeeded Bishop Rappe as the leader of a flock rapidly increasing through German, Irish, Italian, and Slavic immigration. Irish workers came with the building of the Erie and then the Ohio canals while Italian workers came to work the limestone quarries in the eastern part of Cuyahoga County. Many of these immigrants then went to work in the steel mills being built in and near Cleveland.

In 1882, English and Welsh workers at the Newburgh rolling mill in Newburgh (Broadway-Harvard) area went out on strike because of management's resistance to unionization and the need for improved working conditions and wages. Industrialist William Chisholm, the mill's owner, closed the mill and then reopened it with recent Polish and Bohemian immigrants. Three years later, the recently hired Polish and Bohemian workers shut down the mill and a number of related businesses in the area over the very same issues.

During the late 1870's, the Industrial Council was founded in Cleveland as a federation of the various labor organizations. This body became closely identified with the Knights of Labor and as such, became more involved in local politics than in the needs of working people. The Central Labor Union emerged to represent only members of local trade unions.

Union members initiating the CLU came from the Typographical Union #53 & #6 (German); Cigarmakers Union #17; Iron Molders #218; Amalgamated Carpenters, Brewery Workers #17; and Bakery Workers #19. The Cleveland Central Labor Union was chartered by the recently formed American Federation of Labor in October, 1887.

Bishop Ignatius Frederick Horstmann followed Bishop Gilmour in 1892. Bishop Horstmann supported unions for laborers as a matter of justice. He said that employers who refused to grant their workers a living wage did so at grave spiritual peril.

The numbers of unions and their members increased in Cleveland in 1891 when the Central Labor Union and its newspaper, THE CITIZEN, began an aggressive campaign of organization and education.

THE "LABOR PRIEST"

A young seminarian named Peter Dietz was accepted by Bishop F. Horstmann as a student for the priesthood in the diocese of Cleveland in 1905. He was the son of a member of the Varnisher's Union. In his first assignment to St. Mary parish in Elyria, Fr. Dietz showed a keen interest in the working man's plight.

Fr. Dietz was to become one of the first nationally identified "Labor Priests." He is considered by many to be a key person in the early teaching and implementation of U.S. Catholic social teaching. Convening a number of national labor leaders, he formed the MILITIA OF CHRIST FOR SOCIAL SERVICE in 1910. Among his executive committee were John Mitchell, President, United Mine Workers; James O'Connell, President, International Association of Machinists; Denis A. Hayes, President, International Association of Glass Bottle Blowers; and John B. Alpine, President, International Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters.

The stated objective of the Militia was "The defence of the Christian order of society and its progressive development." They were committed to "The economic, ethical, sociological and political doctrine of Christian philosophy as developed in the course of history the legacy of tradition, interpreted in modern times in the letters of Leo XIlI and Pius X."

Fr. Dietz saw education as a means of empowerment and worked hard to develop a school, eventually established in Cincinati, Ohio, in which Church teachings would be available to workers. He did this for a number of years and at great personal sacrifice until he died in 1947.

In 1909, Bishop John Patrick Farrelly became bishop of Cleveland.

NATIONAL "BISHOPS PROGRAM FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION"

World War I was past and the attention and efforts of all focused on rebuilding the social structure. At the national level, the Administrative Committee of the National Catholic War Council, under the directorship of Fr. John Ryan, issued what was to become known as the BISHOPS PROGRAM FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION. This document called for government legislation assuring:

  • the right of workers to bargain collectively
  • a minimum wage act
  • health and unemployment insurance

Much of what the bishops called for was to be enacted years later under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the NEW DEAL.

Bishop Joseph Schrembs, Bishop of Toledo, was one of the four bishops signing the statement. 

Archbishop Joseph Schrembs became the Bishop of Cleveland in 1921 and served during a period of active union formation and growth beginning in the 1930's. The Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) was passed in 1935, opening great opportunities for organizing and providing guarantees for collective bargaining. That same year the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed to include industry-wide unions. In 1936 the United Steel Workers struck the steel industry in Cleveland and nationally.

Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical QUAD-RAGESIMO ANNO, celebrating, updating, and clarifying RERUM NOVARUM, in 1931. In this country there was widespread interest in Catholic social teaching.

Following the convening of the Second Annual Social Action Congress in June, 1939 in Cleveland, a small group of trade unionists met weekly at St. Emeric Parish on the City's near west side.

With the guidance of Fr. Aloysius Bartko, they studied the Church documents and related their faith to their work. The group worked to build an association to fulfill the words of Pope Pius XI "...Side by side with these trade unions there must always be associations which aim at giving their members a thorough moral and religious training, that these in turn may impart to the unions to which they belong the upright spirit which should direct their entire conduct..."° While much of The Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU) emphasis was on preventing communist and racketeering influences in the union move-ment, they also proposed a very positive, albeit overly ambitious, program of social reform.

"ACTU stands for the right of the worker to:

  • A job.
  • An annual income sufficient to support himself and his family in reasonable comfort.
  • Collective Bargaining through union representatives freely chosen.
  • A share in the profits after just wages and return to capital have been paid.
  • A just price for the goods he buys.
  • Hours of work and other conditions of employment in harmony with human dignity.
  • Strike and be allowed to picket peacefully.

ACTU stands for the responsibility of the worker to:

  • Perform an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
  • Join a bona fide union.
  • Strike only for just cause and after other methods of settlement have been exhausted.
  • Refrain from violence and respect private property.
  • Abide by just agreements freely made.
  • Maintain strict honesty within the union.
  • Fight for a fair deal for all, irrespective of race, creed, or color."0

In September of 1940, the first national conference of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists was held in Cleveland. With Earl Krock as the Cleveland chapter president and Fr. Aloysius Bartko as chaplain, Archbishop Schrembs called seven chapters, from around the nation, together. The participants heard from Rev. John P. Monaghan of New York, founder of the movement, and Msgr. John A. Ryan, director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference social action depart-

Actists, as they called themselves, also called for the unification of the AFL and CIO along with other nonaffiliated unions. Archbishop Schrembs instituted the "Working-man's Mass as an annual Labor Day celebration in the diocese's churches. Local ACTU convention participants included Thomas F. Burns of Akron, vice president, United Rubber Workers, CIO; Walter J. Shro-ka, organizer with the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen; Thomas A. Lenehan, Secretary of the Cleveland Federation of Labor; Pat Burns, business manager, Carpenters Union; and Ray McCauly, staff with the Catholic Universe Bulletin and active with the Newspaper Guild.

Archbishop Schrembs, presiding at the Workingman's Mass on Labor Day, 1941, stated that "The Working-man should be restored to his place of dignity in the plan of Providence and be guaranteed the secure and stable position which other classes of society enjoy.

Employees of the Catholic Universe Bulletin, official newspaper of the Diocese of Cleveland, organized a collective bargaining unit in 1943 and joined Cleveland local No. One of the American Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO. It is believed to be the first Catholic newspaper in the U.S. to have its employees represented by a labor union. In 1978 the Universe Bulletin unit became the first guild shop in Local One. Founding leaders were Ray Mulcahy, Cletus Koubek, and Leonard Bruening. Strong guild leadership has continued, with Tim Murnane, Jack Weir and Mary Englert having served as presidents. Joe McKenna, currently a vice president, and a former treasurer of the union.

The Catholic Electrical Guild was founded in October, 1944. Modeled on the Craft Guilds of the Middle Ages, the guild brought both labor and management together to do charitable works, learn about church social teachings, and build a spirit of fraternity among all involved in the electrical trades from craft, to sales, to management. Early leaders were John J. Kalina and William Novak, Sr. business representative of Local 38, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Membership grew rapidly to a high of 300 in 1951. Members of the guild still meet today at St. Andrew parish on Superior Avenue.!2

LABOR SCHOOLS

The year 1941 also saw the initiation of the Labor School by ACTU. The school, located at St. Augustine Church in Tremont, was developed to provide education for workers on Catholic social teaching. With a tuition of $1.00, three classes were offered over a six week period. The school was directed by Fr. John W. Lees, associate pastor at St. Augustine and included Fr. Charles Hogan, of St. Mary Seminary, teaching the ethics of labor; Fr. Leroy Fenstermaker, on the history of labor; and Ms. Elizabeth F. Gorman, a state legisla-tor, teaching parliamentary law.

Msgr. Francis W. Carney initiated the INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL EDUCATION at St. John College in 1948. Msgr. Carney's education in the labor movement came early in life. His father had lost his job at Otis Steel 40 years earlier for calling for better working conditions and health benefits. He was to be active as Cleveland's "Labor Priest" for the next 25 years.

In November 1949, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) held their national convention in Cleveland. Bishop Edward Francis Hoban, installed in 1945, addressed the delegates. He called upon them to disavow communism and complimented the unions for having defended the rights of labor to a living wage, an honorable position in society, economic security, and to a hearing in the courts and the halls of the legislature. The Bishop also reminded the delegates of their duty to work for the rights of others, for their fellow men, their country and their God.' In 1955, the AFL and CIO merged at the national and local levels.

"RIGHT TO WORK" CAMPAIGN

Efforts to break the union shop were presented to the Ohio voters under the banner of right to work" in the late 1950's. Attempts to pass a constitutional amendment to outlaw the union shop were hotly debated in a number of states but was especially heated in Ohio. The unions and churches of the state allied to fight back and succeeded in defeating the bill. In 1958, Msgr. Francis Carney spoke out for the Ohio Bishops in opposition to the "right to work" movement as immoral.

Two years later in 1960 Msgr. Carney brought together a number of local labor leaders in an advisory committee to the Institute of Social Education. The committee included Martin J. Hughes and Florence M. Graham, Comunications Workers of America; Patrick J. O'Malley and John J. McGinty, Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor; Russell L. Schroeder and Jesse Gallagher, Region IX, AFL-CIO; Paul A. Corey, Cleveland Teachers Union; Walter L. Davies and William A. McGrath, Retail Store employees; Rayond J. DeSantis, Meatcutters & Butcher Workmen of North America; Mac E. Rodgers, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen; and Paul E. Schremp, United Steelworkers of America. 

In 1963, the Management Institute program was established as an extension of the Institute of Social Education. A number of the business leaders involved were Karl E. Martersteck of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co.; James J. Bambrick, Standard Oil Co.; William W. Adams and Robert F. Conway of Fisher Brothers Co.; James J. Carey, General Elec-tric; AI F. Conners, Republic Steel; Charles E.

Duffy and Rolland F. Smith, General Motors; William F. Hauserman, E.F. Hauserman Co.; Lawrence T. Hickey, A.O. Smith Co.; Elmer J. Kasper, Royal Appliance Co.; M.C. Kill, Ford Motor Co.; Charles J. LaFond, Apex Smelting Co.; Clayton G. Leroux, Monarch Aluminum Co.; David C. Peeples, Burroughs Corp.; John A. Seliskar, Central National Bank; and Thomas C. Westropp, Women's Federal Savings & Loan. Mr. James Bambrick of the Labor Relations Department of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio was the primary instructor in the Labor Relations institute. This is especially significant as the Labor/Manage-ment Institute was the first of its kind in the country.

Pope John XXIII, on the 70th anniversary of RERUM NOVARUM in 1961, issued MATER ET MAGISTRA (On Recent Developments of the Social Question in the Light of Christian Teaching) commemorating and confirming the tenets of RERUM NOVARUM and QUAD-RAGESIMO ANNO in relation to the world of the 1960's. Restating the Church's strong support for the dignity of work and the right of labor to organize, MATER ET MAGISTRA also called for labor and management to work together.

COMMISSION ON CATHOLIC COMMUNITY ACTION

Bishop Clarence Issenmann followed Archbishop Hoban as the Bishop of Cleveland in 1964. Under the guidance of Bishop William Cosgrove, auxiliary bishop of Cleveland, a small but dedicated group of concerned laity came together to create an official diocesan response to the Church's social teachings, especially those of the recently convened Second Vatican Council, and the recent movements for peace and civil rights. The Commission on Catholic Community Action was formed in 1969. As the official social action agency for the Diocese of Cleveland, it was established to implement the church's social teachings in education, advocacy, and community organizing around issues of peace and justice.

In 1974 Bishop James A. Hickey was installed as the eighth Bishop of Cleveland. A