May 1, 2024 – Today, on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, Pax Christi USA is excited to announce that it is a unionized workplace. Pax Christi USA proudly joins more than 600 unionized Catholic institutions in more fully living out our values and commitments now and into the future.
Pax Christi USA staff members chose to form an independent union, Pax Christi USA-Local 1972, earlier this year with the Pax Christi USA National Council voluntarily recognizing the union in March. On March 14, a formal card check was conducted by a neutral arbitrator to verify that a sufficient number of staff members had agreed to join the union.
“With deep, heartfelt gratitude for the strong and unwavering support we have received from [outgoing executive director] Johnny [Zokovitch] and the national council in recent years,” said staff member Judy Coode, “we believe that an organized workplace is an outward sign of our alignment with Catholic social teaching and its preference for workers.”
“Pax Christi USA is dedicated to the cause of peace, which can only flourish in the context of justice. The cause of peace and the cause of labor are inextricably linked,” reflects staff member Michelle Sherman. “Since 1999, Pax Christi has lived out a promise to being and becoming an anti-racist, multicultural movement for peace and justice, and since we know that unions help reduce racial and gender disparities in workplaces, it is only fitting that we make this more concrete through our policies and practices. Our hope is that Pax Christi USA, as the national Catholic peace movement, can deepen our witness to the labor movement and to future generations with this commitment.”
“By unionizing, the members of the Pax Christi USA national staff have chosen a deep and meaningful witness to the values at the heart of Catholic social teaching,” stated Johnny Zokovitch, Executive Director of Pax Christi USA. “Any time we can embody more deeply at the organizational level the ideals that we are striving to realize at the social level, it makes our own witness that much more authentic. I’m excited for what this development means for us going forward.”
Most fitting
My Dad was shop steward for longshoremen and I was a shop steward for HS teachers and later for state environmental staff. Catholics have always believed in social justice and unions are a pillar of social justice. It all makes sense because we know we are all made in the image of God and thus share an intrinsic deep value and worth in common. CWA likes to say that a snowflake is not strong even though beautiful and unique but put them together and an avalanche is powerful. God bless all union members.
I’m just thrilled to learn that the workers at PCUSA have unionized! It is certainly fitting that PCUSA should follow Catholic teaching on labor unions by supporting this noble cause. PCUSA founders would be proud!