Episcopal Church votes to endorse ‘card check’ bill

Weeks after claiming the head of the Roman Catholic Church as a supporter of “card check,” one labor group is claiming the Episcopal Church as a backer of the union organizing legislation.

Episcopalian bishops and other top officials voted at its annual meeting to approve a resolution endorsing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), reasoning that the legislation would help protect employees’ rights.

The claim about Episcopal backing for EFCA may ring a bit more concrete than previous assertions about Catholic backing for the “card check” bill. Those claims were based on inferences drawn from Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate.”

“The Episcopal Church has a long record of support for the freedom of workers to form unions and opposition to abusive tactics that prevent them from exercising their right to bargain,” the AFL-CIO wrote on its blog. “By passing this resolution, the Episcopal Church joins a coalition of faith groups representing a broad variety of religious traditions in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.”