There was a time in America, in which, the government, especially through the leadership of FDR, was actively involved in the promotion and the recognition of the necessity of labor unions so that by advocating for better working conditions and better pay for those laboring, there would be far less civil unrest and far more civil satisfaction. This signified that those who labored honestly had therefore the fair opportunity to gain for themselves the opportunity for home ownership and a good life. In other words, the government recognized that extreme income and wealth disparity was not good or healthy for a democracy, along with the salient fact that the corporate profits should be more equally distributed, and thus take into account, the mainstream employees of those corporations.
In the recognition that in numbers there can be strength, and further to the point, that in the education of the worker's legal rights, there is the strength to face one’s employer, we find that the Catholic religion understood the value of workers being organized as well as the need to know their union rights and the importance therefore of a vibrant union so as to put teeth behind the Wagner Act, which guaranteed the right of private sector employees to become unionized, as well as to engage in collective bargaining with their employer, and as necessary, to take united action as in a strike. Further to the point, American governance permitted individuals and encouraged them to organize themselves into unions, so that they would in unison, have a seat at the table with their employer, so as to better negotiate with their employer, for fair worker compensation. So too, progressive Catholicism believed that their constituency deserved an opportunity to be fairly compensated as well as to know their rights to a union, of which, Catholic labor schools were a material aid in helping workers to know and therefore to effect those rights for their benefit, and the benefit of society, overall.
In truth, powerful corporations do not need any governmental agency or mass media to champion their cause for profits, for they already have enough power and influence to begin with. Rather, those who need to get a piece of the action, are those un-championed workers who are employed, and who require such employment in order to have some reasonable hope to achieve the American dream, of which, the best way to accomplish such is to take governmental laws created for this very purpose, in conjunction with organizations such as the Catholic labor schools, to effect the change which would make their lives better. Indeed, it is one thing to preach the Word, and it is another thing to recognize that the Word, in actuality, is not going to be good enough to feed, shelter, and provide gainful employment -- so Catholicism understood well that because an individual looking for a job, or already working at a job, would not have close to equal power to that which would employ them, that only collective bargaining, and an engaged union, that asserted those rights on behalf of present employees, as well as employees of the future, could provide these employees with the overall pay package which would fairly compensate them. Therefore, the Catholic labor schools did their part to be an integral part of this happening and contributed in their own way to the rise of labor unions which materially benefited the middle class of America.