We Christians believe that work is a gift from God. However, unlike Karl Marx, who saw work as the principal factor shaping human life, we believe that other factors, especially those of the spiritual order, are even more important. Nonetheless we do agree that the conditions and attitudes associated with work have a powerful impact on most other aspects of our lives. As John Paul II has said, "human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question." (Laborem Exercens, no. 3). Since this is the case, we need to think about the deeper issues affecting work today, to reflect on those issues in the light of the Gospel, and to act in order to bring about change where it is needed. To assist in this process, we ask you to read the following vignettes, all based on real life situations.

Working to Live

Richard and Isabelle have been married for five years. They live in London, Ontario, with their two pre-school children. Richard is an unskilled worker with a steady job in a fast food restaurant. For this work he is paid a little more than the minimum wage of $6.85 an hour. He enjoys dealing with people but finds that his pay is woefully inadequate to provide properly for his family. Moreover the food chain for which he works gives him almost no scope for personal decision making or imagination on the job. To supplement their income Isabelle has to work as well. She has some clerical skills. In order to minimize child care costs, she works at two part-time jobs, without benefits or pension provisions, which she can fit in with Richard's hours. She would much rather either be at home with the children or have one steady job where she would feel secure and see some future for herself. Both Richard and Isabelle are industrious, and financially they manage, but just barely. They hope things will get better.

Living to Work

Mary and Andrew are both in their mid-thirties. Mary has a management position with an automobile company and Andrew is in the insurance business. Between them they earn $180,000 a year. They live in a comfortable home in an upscale neighbourhood in Toronto. Both work long hours. They have two children who are in daycare. Seldom are the parents both home on the same evening with the children. They try to keep weekends free, but often their work interferes with this. They do get away on the occasional brief vacation, but in general, circumstances dictate that time together as a family is severely limited. Contact with their extended family is rare. They are very much on their own.

Working and Living on the Farm

Harvey is the fourth generation of his family to operate the family farm. It is a 200 acre farm in southern Ontario which he works full-time. He is engaged in mixed farming, and specializes in the production of organic food. Years ago when he realized that he could only succeed if he had larger acreage, he purchased a second 150 acre farm, and he is making heavy mortgage payments on it. In more recent years he has found that his costs have continued to rise, while his income has stagnated or even declined. To help keep their heads above water, his wife has taken a job off the farm. Even with that, Harvey is finding it extremely difficult to keep up with the farm work, and also do the paperwork that governments require. He would like to hire help but simply cannot afford it. He loves farming, and does not want to sell out to a conglomerate. He lives with the daily fear that he will go under. One of his neighbours, in a similar situation, committed suicide last year.

The Single Parent

Anne-Marie is an isolated single parent with two young children, one of whom is in grade two and the other in kindergarten. She has some secretarial skills but is unable to find a job which would give her sufficient income to cover the cost of childcare when her children are not in school. Consequently she is currently on social assistance. She is supposed to receive $1,027.00 a month, to cover accommodation, food and clothing for herself and the two children. The father of the children provides minimum child support on an intermittent basis, and the amount of that support is deducted from her social assistance payment. In the months when he fails to provide that support, she has to apply to social assistance to have that amount restored to her welfare payment, but it can take several months for her to receive the money. Recently she has been informed that she must engage in a workfare project or else her social assistance will be cut off.

The Disrupted Career

Joe is forty-five years of age. He is married with three teen-age children in high school. His wife works as a secretary. He was employed in a skilled position with a large manufacturing firm in northern Ontario for twenty years. He enjoyed his work, and received a good wage. Then his company was taken over by a transnational corporation, which proceeded to lay off a large number of people, including Joe, as part of a "downsizing" or "rationalization" process. The action was defended on the grounds of efficiency, but Joe suspects the layoffs were motivated mainly by the desire to increase profits.

Joe received the minimum legally acceptable severance package, which will help for a while. He was also given some assistance with a job search but his particular skill is not in great demand anymore, and he is told he must retrain. His age is against him. He is one of those many people who are too young to retire and too old to be attractive to another employer. Not only is the family facing financial difficulty, but it will be much more difficult now for Joe's children to think of a university education. Besides that, Joe's sense of self-esteem has suffered a severe blow, and he finds himself fighting depression.

The Working Poor

Rose and Peter have five children between the ages of five and fourteen. Both are skilled workers and, until a few years ago, had jobs and were able to support their family. Peter used to be in sales but has been unable to find steady work since his employer went out of business. Rose has training and experience in computer technology, but lost her job when her employer downsized.

They live in subsidized housing in Hamilton, Ontario, and, until recently, were on general social assistance. Now they both qualify for Ontario Works. Peter was thrilled when told he was eligible for a placement with a pilot project in the private sector. He started working full-time six months ago at a call centre, where he earns $8 an hour, or $1230 a month. He was shocked to find his wages were actually 20% lower than what he was receiving on social assistance. Though Ontario Works "tops up" his monthly income, Peter must pay for travel to work each day and for required clothing. So the family's monthly expenses have increased. They are no better off than they were before he started working. Besides that, working conditions at the call centre are stressful and there is a high turnover rate. Peter works from 4:45 p.m. until midnight 6 days one week and 5 days the next. He sees his children briefly between their arrival from school and his departure for work. Rose, who is studying to improve her employment chances, has all the childcare duties.

These stories do not paint a complete picture of work in Ontario. Moreover since we define work in this document as "paid employment", they take no account of the contribution to society, and to the building of God's world, that is made by unpaid work done in the home and family, in volunteer initiatives, and so on. It is a reflection of our materialistic culture that such unpaid work receives little official recognition in government policy. However, the stories do represent the experience of many people in this province today be they working in management, production, services or the professions. We now ask you to look at the following digest of the Church's teaching on work and to consider the scenarios presented, in the light of that teaching.

The Nature of Work

Human beings are meant to work, and so people have a right to the opportunity for gainful and useful work. This "universal call" to work flows from the fact that human beings are the "image of God". Like God, humans - and only humans - are able to take responsibility for things. They are able to manage and develop this world, and to help bring into being a humane society. In their work then, humans are managers for God. Since the call to work is "universal", all should be enabled to contribute their talents for the common good.

Work is also a socializing and humanizing agent. It brings people together, by uniting them in a common task, and building up a sense of solidarity. Good work unfolds our human abilities and so has the capacity to develop confidence, self-discipline and a sense of responsibility. Like many others, the popes have frequently deplored the fact that too often the conditions of modern work degrade people instead. The principle that should guide all work is that people are more important than the work they do. In fact, the dignity of any work flows from the fact that it is done by a person, not from what the person does.

As pointed out by the sociologist of religion, Robert Bellah, work fulfills several roles. It is a job, that is, it is our way of making a living. It is a career, that is, it is a means of personal development and satisfaction. Most of all, it is a calling, that is, it is our way of contributing to God's world and to human society.

As a job, work should provide people with a wage or salary sufficient to support themselves and their family in decency. It should also provide a measure of security, and should ensure a safe workplace.

As a career, work should enable individuals to derive satisfaction from their work. It should give scope to their creativity and sense of freedom. It should provide opportunity for some share in decision-making, as well as in ownership and profits, where applicable.

As a calling, work should provide a means of contributing to the common good. It should enable people to see that they are doing something that honours their Creator and serves other people.

Balancing Working and Living

Important as work is in each human life, it is not our highest activity. It doesn't begin to compare, for example, with love. We are, above all, capable of knowing and loving God. We can participate in family life. We are able to contribute to political activity and various other forms of service to the common good. As intelligent beings, we possess the ability to appreciate what does not come from our work: life, the earth itself, truth, beauty. Our work, if it is well-conceived, can contribute in some way to each of these, but it cannot create them nor take their place.

For some people however work has become the sole activity that gives meaning to their lives. They spend all of their energy at work; it is their primary or even their only focus; they sacrifice all things for their work; they derive their identity from their work. This is unhealthy where it is voluntary, and unconscionable where it is forced on people.

At the other extreme, for many people work is unobtainable, or is so structured that workers find it no more than a necessary evil in order to earn a wage or salary. It has little value in itself and does not enhance the person performing it.

Work and the Economy

In today's economy the drive to cut costs and increase profits frequently results in the worker being regarded as simply one other means, like capital or machinery, of producing profit. This is nothing less than a reversal of ends and means. The economy is meant to be for the sake of people. Yet often people are being treated as if they existed for the sake of the economy.

As the present Pope has said, any situation which considers "human labour solely according to its economic purpose" is really "an error of materialism" because it "directly or indirectly places the spiritual and the personal (human activity, moral values, and such matters) in a position of subordination to material reality." (Laborem Exercens, no. 13).

Agents of Change in our Work

While there is much in the conditions of work that needs to change, it is first and foremost working people themselves who need to take a new attitude to their work. We need to see work as more than a job, even more than just a career. It needs to be perceived as a calling, as a way of contributing to our world and making our society a more decent place. If workers themselves give in to the pressure of looking on their work only as a means of making money or of climbing the ladder, they should not be surprised if the enterprises for which they work gladly accept their compliance in such an approach. If working people reduce themselves to being earners and consumers, then the other agents in the economy will reflect that sort of attitude and exploit it.

Secondly there are voluntary organizations or associations to which we belong. Human society is organic, and accomplishes most of its tasks through intermediate associations, such as labour unions, professional organizations, consumer groups, support groups, political parties, service clubs, charities of various kinds, and of course, churches. These bodies influence the way we see things; they help shape our society, and they influence the policies that affect both our work and our attitudes to each other. Such associations are capable either of becoming narrowly focused on their own interests, or of promoting a genuine humanism and working for the common good of our society. Catholic social teaching sees unions, for example, as having a particular vocation to serve "as a mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice". (Laborem Exercens, No. 20) The Canadian bishops have stated that "labour unions have played an important role in enhancing the social rights of workers, the poor and the defenseless in our society". (CCCB: "Supporting Labour Unions: A Christian Responsibility, 1986)

Finally, it is clear that governments play a major role in creating the conditions in which people work, and in promoting a particular vision of the place of work in life and society. Governments can help to assure opportunities for everyone who wants work to have it. They can affect the conditions and safety of work. They can provide security and compassionate treatment for the unemployed, and opportunities for the challenged. They can help set the tone for relations between employers and employees. They can do great good for people if they accept the fact that the vast majority of people want to work, and allow this fact to influence their policies.

Above all, governments tend to promote a particular vision of work. If governments see people primarily in economic terms, and regularly portray them mainly as economic factors in the processes of exchange and consumption, then they contribute to a materialistic view of work. Of course governments also reflect, to some extent, the views of those who elect them to office. That is why candidates for public office must be closely examined on their attitudes toward work when we are engaged in the process of choosing a government. Does their social policy put people first? Does their labour policy put workers, at all levels, first? Does their educational policy have as its goal an all round development of the full human person?

Solidarity

Globalization is a fact of life in today's world of work, and this clearly has an impact on both the vision of work in our society and the availability and conditions of that work. Yet "globalization" is not some impersonal and deterministic force that we need to accept in silence. We can mould it. Persons, voluntary associations and governments all have powerful means at their disposal to have a serious impact on global corporations and on global trading conditions. As the Pope has said, though globalization is capable of fragmenting and marginalizing societies, it also has the potential to bring people together. The principles developed by the Church apply to all people, at all times and everywhere. They are global.

We have looked at some situations which depict the reality of work in the life of Ontarians. There are of course many more aspects than those in our stories. We have also described some key aspects of the teaching of the Catholic Church on work. The appendix to this document contains several quotations from pertinent Church documents. In this section, we place before you some issues raised by our society and pictured, in part, in our opening stories. We ask you to ponder them in the light of our presentation. As you look at them, consider the following three questions:

• What can and should I as a person do about these issues?
• What can and should the associations to which I belong do about them?
• What can and should governments I help to elect do about them?

• Finding a balance in our personal lives between our work and the other areas of life.
• Adopting an attitude to work that reflects the place of human work in God's Plan.
• Promoting an approach to our life together in society that sees us as much more than just economic agents.
• Instituting policies that enable work to enhance and promote family life.
• Implementing measures that enable those without work to live with dignity and at the same time train for work without incurring crushing financial burdens.
• Providing protection and greater security for those in low-paying jobs.
• Finding effective ways to preserve the family farm.
• Ensuring that labour's share of our provincial income is equitably distributed between the highest and the lowest paid, between men and women, between the able and the challenged.
• Actively promoting cooperatives and other forms of worker sharing in management, ownership and profits.
• Using devices like tax policy and social audits to promote a spirit of service and temper the drive for excessive profit in corporations.
• Providing acceptable work and involvement for the mentally and physically challenged.
• Understanding that we form a community and that our work, which provides much of its vitality, has a meaning and importance beyond ourselves.

Quotations on Work from Vatican Documents

Dignity of Workers

...however true it may be that human beings are destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is "for people" and not people "for work". (Laborem Exercens, No. 6)

So it is that bodily labour which Divine Providence decreed should be carried out even after original sin for the good of both body and soul, is turned into an instrument of perversion, because lifeless matter emerges from factories in a more noble condition, whereas persons in those same factories are corrupted and made worse. (Quadragesimo Anno No. 135)

Priority of Labour

...we must first of all recall a principle that has always been taught by the Church: the principle of the priority of labour over capital. This principle directly concerns the process of production: in this process labour is always a primary efficient cause, while capital, the whole collection of means of production, remains a mere instrument or instrumental cause. (Laborem Exercens, No.12 )

Work, which is the direct expression of the person, should be rated more highly than the possession of external goods, which we should see as purely instrumental in character. (Mater et Magistra, No. 107)

Human labour which is expended in the production and exchange of goods or in the performance of economic services is superior to the other elements of economic life... (Gaudium et Spes, No. 67)

Employment

It is the duty of society, moreover, according to the circumstances prevailing in it, and in keeping with its proper role, to help its citizens find opportunities for adequate employment. (Gaudium et Spes, No. 67)

A Just Wage

Just remuneration for the work of an adult who is responsible for a family means remuneration which will suffice for establishing and properly maintaining a family and for providing security for its future. (Laborem Exercens, No.19)

Finally, payment for labour must be such as to furnish each person with the means to cultivate one's own material, social, cultural and spiritual life worthily and that of one's dependents. (Gaudium et Spes, No. 67)

Justice for Women

It is a fact that in many societies women work in nearly every sector of life. But it is fitting that they should be able to fulfill their tasks in accordance with their own nature, without being discriminated against and without being excluded from jobs for which they are capable, but also without lack of respect for their family aspirations and for their specific role in contributing, together with men, to the good of society.

The true advancement of women requires that labour should be structured in such a way that women do not have to pay for their advancement by abandoning what is specific to them and at the expense of the family, in which women as mothers have an irreplaceable role. (Laborem Exercens, No.19)

Unions

They (unions) are indeed a mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice, for the just rights of working people in accordance with their individual professions. However, the struggle should be seen as a normal endeavour "for" the just good: in the present case, for the good which corresponds to the needs and merits of working people associated by profession, but it is not a struggle "against" others. (Laborem Exercens, No.20)

Agriculture

In many situations radical and urgent changes are, therefore, needed in order to restore to agriculture - and to rural people - their just value as the basis for a healthy economy, within the social community's development as a whole. (Laborem Exercens, No.21)

The Challenged

Since disabled people are subjects with all their rights, they should be helped to participate in the life of society in all its aspects and at all the levels accessible to their capacities. (Laborem Exercens, No.22)

Work in the Moral Order

...after we have, in the Lord's Spirit, and following his mandate, developed on earth the goods of human dignity, of human community and of freedom, indeed all those good fruits of nature and of our work, we will discover them again, cleansed of every stain, brightened and transformed, when Christ hands over to the Father the eternal and universal Kingdom... (Gaudium et Spes, No. 39)

The Human Impact of Work

... in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council; "Just as human activity proceeds from people, so it is ordered towards people. For when human beings work they not only alter things and society, they develop themselves as well. They learn much, they cultivate their resources, they go outside of themselves and beyond themselves. Rightly understood this kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be garnered... Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the divine plan and will, it should harmonize with the genuine good of the human race, and allow people as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfill it (GS 35)" (Laborem Exercens, No.26)

...work (which) must be regarded not merely as a commodity, but as a specifically human activity. (Mater et Magistra, No. 18)

A Spirituality of Work

Let the Christian who listens to the word of the living God, uniting work with prayer, know the place that his work has not only in earthly progress but also in the development of the Kingdom of God, to which we are all called through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the word of the Gospel. (Laborem Exercens, No. 27)

Resources for Working and Living in Ontario

• John XXIII, Mater et Magistra (1961)
• John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (1981)
• Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (1967)
• John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1988)
• Documents of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965)

Web Sites

• The Vatican: www.vatican.va
• Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.cccb.ca
• The Ontario Assembly of Catholic Bishops: www.occb.on.ca
• Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace: www.devp.org
• The National Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.nccbuscc.org
• Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative: www.web.net\~jubilee