WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Catholic Church teaches that unions are indispensable for “a just social order,” said Manhattan College religious studies professor Joseph Fahey, but “we won’t have a just social order unless we have labor associations that contribute.”

Fahey feels labor associations can make greater contributions if Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act. He was one of several speakers on a May 12 conference call promoting the bill, introduced in March.

Current labor law allows for an employer to determine recognition of a new union in the workplace by choosing to hold an election or using a “card-check” process, with a majority of employees signing cards to join a union. But the bill transfers from employers to employees the right to decide which method will be used. It also requires binding arbitration if an employer and the union cannot reach an agreement on a first contract, and calls for triple damages if an employer fires a worker who supports the union. Current labor law calls for full back pay and benefits minus whatever the worker earned after being fired.

Fahey is founder of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, part of the Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness coalition, which was established to promote passage of the bill. The group was to lobby for the bill in Washington before Memorial Day.