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Trade unions controlled only the organized workers and 'used' them for political gain.
February 20, 2012-Chennai-By Leo Fernando: Father Thomas Joseph, 92, has been associated with workers movement in India for more than six decades. The Madras-Mylapore archdiocesan priest still recalls his meeting with late Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, founder of the workers movement, who he says continues to inspire him to fight for workers and their rights even now.
How did it all begin?
The nonagenarian priest says he was totally unprepared when his archdiocese appointed him workers’ chaplain in 1950. His only brief was to help in Catholic workers’ faith formation and organize them for their socio economic welfare. “It was mainly to keep them away from communists,” he said with hindsight. Inexperienced as he was, he began visiting workers’ families and their leaders. “I found workers helplessness and marginalized from one generation to the other.”
Trade unions controlled only the organized workers and used them for political purposes. And there was none to take care of the unorganized. “I too felt helpless. My long years of formation did not help,” the priest explained. So, he attended a course in industrial relation at the Oxford University. On his return in 1954, he joined Young Christian Workers movement that used the See-Judge-Act method to train leaders. “Cardijn’s method helped workers discover their vocation as apostles among the working class.” By then, Father Joseph was in high demand with the Indian government and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) seeking his help.
The government wanted him to draft a syllabus for workers’ education program. The workers’ movement led to CBCI to set up a commission for labor and appointed Fr. Joseph as its secretary. “The Church realized that its employees needed a better treatment that the ‘Master Servant” relation that provided no job security or fixed hours of work. Appointment letters and leave facilities were unthinkable then. “Hence my first task was to draft guidelines for employees in our institutions. The result was the official publication of “Personnel in Church related institutions,” the priest recalled.
