Dignity of Work & the Rights of Workers

Along with

•The Right to Life & the Dignity of the Human Person
•Call to Family, Community & Participation
•Rights & Responsibilities
•Option for the Poor & Vulnerable
•Solidarity
•Caring for God's Creation

the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explains that Dignity of Work & the Rights of Workers is one of the seven key themes of Catholic Social Teaching:

• “The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Economic justice calls for decent work at fair, living wages, opportunities for legal status for immigrant workers, and the opportunity for all people to work together for the common good through their work, ownership, enterprise, investment, participation in unions, & other forms of economic activity.”

As per Chapter 6 of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,

• “To the first human couple God entrusts the task of subduing the earth and exercising dominion over every living creature (cf. Gen 1:28). The dominion exercised by man over other living creatures, however, is not to be despotic or reckless; on the contrary he is to 'cultivate & care for' (Gen 2:15) the goods created by God....
  
  “In his preaching, Jesus teaches that we should appreciate work.... Jesus teaches man not to be enslaved by work....Work…[is a] participation not only in the act of creation but also in that of redemption. Those who put up with the difficult rigours of work in union with Jesus cooperate, in a certain sense, with the Son of God in his work of redemption and show that they are disciples of Christ bearing his cross, every day...Christians are called to work not only to provide them-selves with bread, but also in acceptance of their poorer neighbours….By his work and industriousness, man — who has a share in the divine art & wisdom — makes creation, the cosmos already ordered by the Father, more beautiful....
  
  “Work is 'a foundation for the formation of family life, which is a natural right and something that man is called to'.[John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 10: AAS 73 (1981), 600.]....it is necessary that businesses, professional organizations, labour unions and the State promote policies that, from an employment point of view, do not penalize but rather support the family nucleus."