Group 6 – 10-St.

Odilia
#19 Jose, Jaena Micaela
#24 Lugtu, Eireen Mae
#35 Rejano, Jewelly
#40 Sarabia, Andrea
# 44 Soliman, Louise Nelle

Laborem Exercens

In 1981, along with the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical
“Rerum Novarum, John Paul II wrote Laborem Exercens - a letter addressing the question of
labour and was signed on September 14, feast of the Holy Cross. As a native of Poland John Paul
II was a man who knew Marxism as both an economic theory and a concrete political regime and
was well aware of the popular political and social movements for change that were beginning to
influence thinking throughout Eastern Europe in 1981. This context shaped both the
proclamation and reception of this important Encyclical.

In Poland, during September 1981, the National Congress of Delegates of

the Solidarity (Solidarnosc) met in two sessions in Gdansk and elected Lech Walesa as President
of the union. It issued a "Message to working people of Eastern Europe" extending greetings and
words of support to workers of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic
Republic, Romania, Hungary and all nations of the Soviet Union.

The two sessions of the Solidarity national congress were held 5th to 10th September and
then 26th September to October 7,1981. Between these two sessions Pope John Paul II
proclaimed Laborem Exercens on September 14th.

The main concern of Laborem Exercens is to affirm the dignity of workers as human
persons. The encyclical identifies a potential threat by perspectives in the economic world that
view labour as simply a means of production. Wherein labour, in reality, is and should be
constituted by human persons and the work that they do.

In this he developed the concept of man’s dignity in work through the introduction and
the 4 main chapters that he structured: “Work and Man,” “Conflict Between Labor and Capital in
the Present Phase of History,” “Rights of Workers,” and “Elements for a Spirituality of Work.”

I. Work and Man

Laborem Exercens identifies work as the key to the whole social question. It states that
every human person at work reflects the action of the creator. Work bears a particular mark
of humanity, a person operating within a community of persons.

New developments and changes in technological, economic and political conditions

which impact the world of work influence the unequal distribution of wealth and poverty and
hence challenge us to enable just development for all. Even in the age of mechanized work,
the proper subject of work continues to be the human person. So when people are treated as
instruments in the production process this is identified as a threat to the right order of values,
for workers are the ends not just the means of work.

Work in the subjective sense: The human person as the Subject of Work

The source of the dignity of work comes from its subjective dimension, “the value of
human work is not primarily the kind of work being done, but the fact that the one doing it is
a person.” This is called the “gospel of work”.

While it may seem that in the industrial process it is the machine that "works" and man
merely supervises it, making it function and keeping it going in various ways, it is also true
that for this very reason industrial development provides grounds for introducing in new
ways the question of human work. Both the original industrialization that gave rise to what is
called the worker question and the subsequent industrial and post-industrial changes show
that, even in the age of a more mechanized and industrialized "work", the proper subject of
work continues to be man. Technologies are a whole set of instruments which man uses and
greatly helps him in his work, but sometimes, it can also be his enemy. This is when one’s
already exalting the machine which results to reducing the man to the status of its slave and
deprives him of the previous employment.

Solidarity

The Holy Father recalls that "in order to achieve social justice in the various parts of the
world, in the various countries, and in the relationships between them, there is a need for ever
new movement of solidarity of the workers and with the workers."

During that time, the said “worker question” caused the burst of solidarity among
workers. The call to solidarity and common action addressed to the workers - especially to
those engaged in depersonalized work in industrial plants, when the machine tends to
dominate man - was important. It was the reaction against the degradation of man as the
subject of work, and against the exploitation in the field of wages, working conditions and
social security for the worker. This reaction united the working world in a community
marked by great solidarity.

II. Conflict Between Labor and Capital in the Present Phase of History

Throughout this period, the issue of work has been posed on the basis of the
great conflict that in the age of industrial development emerged between "capital" and
"labour", that is to say between the small but highly influential group of entrepreneurs,
owners or holders of the means of production, and the people who lacked these means and
who shared in the process of production solely by their labour. The conflict originated in the
fact that the workers put their powers at the disposal of the entrepreneurs, and these,
following the principle of maximum profit, tried to establish the lowest possible wages for
the work done by the employees. In addition there were other elements of exploitation,
connected with the lack of safety at work and of safeguards regarding the health and living
conditions of the workers and their families.

In result, the encyclical recalls Church teaching regarding the priority of labour over
capital. The first "is always a primary efficient cause, while capital, the whole collection of
means of production, remains a mere instrument or instrumental cause." All the technological
advances that currently act as instruments of work are the results of work previously
undertaken. Everything contained in the concept of capital is only a collection of things,
humans alone are persons. Worker solidarity, the right of workers to combine and bargain
with employers, is affirmed even to the extent of strikes. As capital is the product of labour,
labour and capital cannot be in opposition to each other. Capital is meant to serve labour.
Economism is identified as the error of considering human labour according to its economic
purpose only, and materialism is the error that views human values to be at the service of
material things. The Catholic understanding of the right to private property as subordinated to
the right to common use, “to the fact that goods are meant for everyone,” is reiterated.

Lastly, St. John Paul II reminded that every effort must be made to ensure that in this
kind of system also the human person can preserve his awareness of working "for himself.”

III. Rights of Workers

Pope John Paul spoke of the role of all agents of economic policy, principally the state, as
being the ‘indirect employer’ and having the responsibility to address imbalances in the
distribution of wealth, employment and social welfare.

The indirect employer has responsibility ‘to meet the danger of unemployment and to
ensure employment for all’ through ‘overall planning with regard to the different types of
work by which not only the economic life but also the cultural life of a given society is
shaped.’ (# 18)

Particular responsibilities include:

• conducting a just labour policy in the context of the broader operation of the economy
• finding suitable employment for all who are capable of it
• acting against unemployment in order to avert individual and social disaster
• providing unemployment benefits for the subsistence of unemployed workers and their
families
• operating a suitable system of instruction and education for labour market participation
• coordinating employment, wages, infrastructure and industry policies to ensure a healthy
balance of employment in communities.
The rights of workers are to be seen within the broad context of human rights.

 A just wage and other social benefits are the concrete means that verify the justice of the
whole socioeconomic system.
 The right of association is affirmed.
 Unions have a role in the struggle for social justice.
 Disabled people should be offered work according to their capabilities.
 People have the right to seek better conditions of life in another country.
IV. Elements for a Spirituality of Work

Christ, the man of work, “has appreciation and respect for human work” because he
himself is a labourer. And so Christians share in the redeeming cross of Christ by the toil of
work. 

"By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way
collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. He shows himself a true
disciple of Christ by carrying the cross in his turn every day in the activity that he is called
upon to perform."