The Workers in the Vineyard

The Workers in the Vineyard
Matthew 20.1-16

One of the great inventions of modern Western society is the trade union. For far too long those with money, land and privilege shamelessly exploited those who had none. When, after a long struggle, workers with no power except their own labour managed to stand together and force the issue with the rich and strong, it was a great day for freedom and justice.

But over the course of the twentieth century things changed. Exploitation and injustice often continued, and the unions often did a fine job in checking or reversing it. But other issues came into the picture, and made life more complicated, more morally ambiguous. In many Western countries now, the role of the unions has become quite different from what their founders envisaged. In some cases this has been for the better; in others, in my judgment, for the worse...

Taken from Matthew for Everyone – by Tom Wright