Father John Cahill: “We are not going to provide you with cheap labor”

I think this might be the quote of the week by Father John Cahill, former director of Justice and Peace for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, Kentucky.

Father Cahill writes:

It is time to tell corporations that taxpayers have had enough. We are not going to provide you with cheap labor out of our wallets while you receive favored tax rates on capital gains, reinvested dividends, accelerated depreciation, tax abatements etc. etc. and severely underpay your workers.

Father Cahill recognizes that in our one-sided pursuit of profits, we seem to have lost sight of why we were pursuing profits to begin with.

We’ve lost sight of our values. We’ve lost sight of why we allowed corporations to begin with: for the public good.

He contrasts this with today’s insanity of subsidizing multinational corporations while many of these same multinationals fight to pay people less and less.

NYC rally to raise the minimum wage. Photo CC SA 2.0 courtesy of The All-Nite Images.

Father Cahill calls for action on a national level to pay a living wage:

Taxpayers should demand that workers receive a living (not just a subsistent) wage. This must be a decision on the federal level lest suppressing wages will become on more weapon in the competition between states to encourage business relocation. We know, wherever you live, that $15 an hour will barely support a family of four nor come close to paying for post- secondary education for children who work part-time, live at home and contribute to the family budget.

Father Cahill also advocates supporting unions instead of laws designed to drive wages and benefits down.

He gets that the income inequality in our country isn’t just happening. It’s by design.

Even more there is the ever increasing pressure to maximize shareholder profits at the expense of the workers who actually produce the wealth and of the community which provides the infrastructure to make business possible.

To remedy the situation, we need to bring back values and stop treating workers like commodities.

I encourage reading and sharing Father Cahill’s words.

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David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy. Follow @akadjian