CST# 5: The dignity of work and the Rights of Workers

The Catholic church says we as people need to resepct the dignity of our employees and the rights that they naturally have. These rights include the right to a just and fair wage, decent working conditions that are not humiliating or dangerous, and the right to associate or form unions. Also included are the rights to protections from disability, security and options for retirement, as well as economic opportunities for those people to embetter their own lives. In researching our social justice project, many farmers around the world are subject to unfair prices for their crops, and are often undercut by pennies from larger corporations that mass produce food. This has in fact led to a sharp rise in suicide rates among farmers in the third world, because they are unable to tend to the farms that their families have owned and operated for generations. Also it is important to keep in mind the abuses of rights of farmworkers in the United States, where they are often taken advantage of to the benefit of wealthy land owners and not given any of the rights posted above.



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