Seventh-day Adventists and Labor Unions
By K. C. RUSSELL
It must be admitted that from a human or worldly point of view, labor unions seem to be the most effective means for maintaining the rights of the laboring man against the oppressive system of the money power. But with the person who has “been born again,” and has become “a new creature,” old things have passed away, and all things have become new. Hence he can not view things as he did before. He must look at them with heaven and eternity in view, and not from a worldly and temporal standpoint. With this understanding of the question, it will not be difficult for every Seventh-day Adventist to determine what his relation should be to labor unions. The very essence of the gospel is to make men free; for Jesus says he was sent “to preach deliverance to the captives,” and “to set at liberty them that are bruised.” The Lord wants his people delivered from Egyptian bondage and servitude. Anything that restricts their liberties he is not pleased with; for it deprives them of their free moral agency, which lies at the very foundation of all that makes this life or the future one worth living for. Every one who has any acquaintance with labor organizations knows that when one becomes allied with them, he surrenders to a certain extent his freedom to act. Such matters as the number of hours he is to work each day, the rate of wages he is to receive, the choice of an employer, when he is to work, when to strike or cease to work, and the like, have passed from under his control. Should a strike be declared by the leaders of the organization, he must refrain from labor, even though he is satisfied with his wages and his employment, and there exists the most perfect satisfaction and the sweetest harmony between himself and his employer. In some instances he is even denied the right to choose where he and his family shall spend the wages he has earned by the sweat of his own brow. Not only is the man who joins the labor unions thus deprived of his own liberties, but the liberties and the rights of others are also involved. One illustration will suffice to show this. The manager of an extensive job printing plant in an Eastern city desired on a certain occasion to discharge a workman who was not giving satisfaction. But, although employer of the man and owner of the printing plant, did he have the power to exercise that right?—No; he must first place the matter before the local printers’ union. And before he could even do this, he must secure with difficulty the privilege of presenting the case before them; and then it would be a question whether he could secure redress. Illustration after illustration might be given showing that the principles that govern those connected with these unions are in flagrant contradiction to the principles of the gospel. There is another feature that should not be overlooked by every Seventh-day Adventist, and that is the fact that every member of these unions is equally responsible with every other member of the organization for all the results that follow this relation, and the influence of them. Let me ask you, my brother and sister, are you prepared to assume the awful responsibility of the fruits that are often borne as the result of labor troubles, in which are destroyed property, and sometimes life itself? The Lord has plainly said, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” This statement does not apply merely to the marriage relation, but to any other that makes us equally responsible in our actions and influence with those who are not walking in the light of present truth. It embraces partnership in business with unbelievers, and uniting with secret societies or labor unions. There is a union that we can all safely join, and that is the one spoken of in John 17:20-23.