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Protect The Dignity of Labor!
- 09/06/10
- 18
A few years ago there was a strike at a juvenile detention center that is near my house. The institution lies directly between my house and pretty much every place I ever drive to, so I had to go by it just about every time I set out. Every day the strikers would update a little sign to tell the world how many days they had been sitting outside, waiting for someone to meet their demands. That number ticked higher and higher. Eventually I figured that if 150 days had gone by and life within the jail was continuing just fine, the employer had learned to get along quite well without the staff. Nevertheless, they contained to remain outside; they continued their strike.
There would always be at least 6 or 8 people sitting at the end of the driveway that leads into the detention center. They would sit in the middle of the driveway so they could block any cars coming in, forcing the drivers to wait a few minutes. On either side of the driveway were little huts they had constructed of shipping crates, plywood and old blue tarps. By all appearances they were held together with nothing but gravity and a bit of frayed nylon rope. Outside each hut was an oil barrel loaded with wood to provide warmth on cool nights.
There was an assortment of garbage, broken lawn chairs, barrels, signs and other assorted trash scattered around the strike site. Any time I drove by the employees would be sitting on lawn chairs either kicked back reading novels or playing cards. For the first few days they held signs and waved at cars, but that stopped before long. For a while they held signs claiming that working conditions were not safe enough. Yet since they were striking for more money, I suppose they would have been happy enough to have those conditions remain the same or even deteriorate if only they were given a bit more money. Those signs eventually disappeared.
One of their signs brought a smirk to my face (or was it a grimace?) every time I would see it. Nailed to a tree beside one of their squalid little huts was a sign that said "PROTECT THE DIGNITY OF LABOR." Every time I saw that sign I thought, "Oh, so this Is dignified labor?" Is it dignified to pile garbage on the ground and to build huts that look like something from a squatter’s camp? Is it dignified to sit on the side of the road in track pants and a dirty t-shirt and reading a novel for eight hours a day? Is there dignity in walking away from your job, your responsibilities, and the youth you claim to care in order to lounge around outdoors day after day?
Dignified labor is labor done for the Lord. Giving an honest day's work, whether it is as a a pastor, a homemaker, a laborer or a youth worker in a detention center is as dignified as one can be. Being a good employee and honoring God through your work—that is God's recipe for dignity, success and joy.
To those people sitting at the end of the driveway over at the detention center I wanted to say this: If you want to be dignified in your labor, get out of that lawn chair, take down your huts, put out the fires and get back to work. But I had a feeling they wouldn’t listen. I had a feeling that the strike wasn’t about bringing dignity to labor at all.
I like what Wayne Grudem says about labor in his book Business for the Glory of God:
Employer/employee relationships provide many opportunities for glorifying God. On both sides of the transaction, we can imitate God, and he will take pleasure in us when he sees us showing honesty, fairness, trustworthiness, kindness, wisdom and skill, and keeping our word regarding how much we promised to pay or what work we agreed to do. The employer/employee relationship also gives opportunity to demonstrate proper exercise of authority and proper responses to authority, in imitation of the authority that has eternally existed between the Father and Son in the Trinity.
When the employer/employee arrangement is working properly, both parties benefit. This allows love for the other person to manifest itself. For example, let's say that I have a job sewing shirts in someone else's shop. I can honestly seek the good of my employer, and seek to sew as many shirts as possible for him along with attention to quality (compare 1 Tim. 6:2), and he can seek my good, because he will pay me at the end of the week for a job well done. As in every good business transaction, both parties end up better off then they were before. In this case, I have more money at the end of the week than I did before, and my employer has more shirts ready to take to market than he did before. And so we have worked together to produce something that did not exist in the world before that week--the world is 500 shirts "wealthier" than it was when the week began. Together we have created some new "wealth" in the world. This is a small example of obeying God's command to "subdue" the earth (Gen 1:28) and make its resources useful for mankind. Now if we multiply that by millions of plants, millions of workers, and millions of different products, it is evident how the world gains material "wealth" that did not exist before--new products have been created by an employer hiring an employee to manufacture something.
Therefore if you hire me to work in your business, you are doing good for me and you are providing both of us with many opportunities to glorify God. It is the same way with hiring people to produce services--whether hiring teachers to teach in a school, doctors to care for people in a clinic, mechanics to fix cars, or painters to paint houses. The employer/employee relationship enables people to create services for others that were not there before.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (18)
South Africa is currently in the grip of an ugly labour strike across several government departments (hospitals, schools, etc.). Petrol attendants were on strike for three days last week, and the motor manufacturing industry was to start a strike today.
Last night at church, in his exposition preaching through the Bible, our pastor arrived at Colossians 3:22-4:1, dealing with the very issue of what he called “The Radical Workplace.”
Your post was therefore very timely.
I agree that people seem to have lost all sense of vocation. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that everyone must have a “calling” in their particular job, but surely all of us have a calling to labour, whether in the workplace as men or in the home as women. I think that labour strikes are biblical inexcusable. But I guess society at large will only understand that when it is in the grip of the gospel.
Edit: What happens if I say “no” to the question, do I hate spam?
Sorry Tim, but this one strikes me as just naive. Or at least, informed by political opinion rather than Scripture.
That’s a harsh opening. I’m sorry if I have offended, rather than startling, which was my intent.
The Grudem quote is all very well, but I notice that he doesn’t address the situation when the employer/employee relationship is not going well. And in this instance, neither have you - the specifics of the situation are largely irrelevant to your argument. They could be requiring employees to beat inmates with red hot pokers, but as far as your argument goes, the strikers should still have gone back to work.
I agree with you: we are made to work. But that gives an implication that you don’t address: what drives a man to NOT work for month after month after month? How soul-destroying would that be? Would you really volunteer for that, just for some extra cash? I once took a job where the boss was convinced I was desperately needed, but once I started, it became clear that there was simply no work at all to do. In three months, I did maybe a week’s work, and I couldn’t take it - I had to leave.
So, without knowing any specifics myself, isn’t it at least possible that the strikers genuinely thought the system they were perpetuating was so broken that they had to act? That they had to sacrifice some of their own identity in order to try to effect change. Were they fumbling around, trying to identify a truth that they could almost grasp?
We are not commanded in Scripture to blindly obey every command of our employer. In a fallen world, some commands will be not good themselves, and not good for the one who issues them - and so in some situations, the good act of the employee is to refuse the command.That might be obvious, but it needs inserting in your post.
Wow Tim, after this post are you sure you are Canadian? :)
Of course when someone speaks such truth is this, you’re bound to get criticized as writing a “political” post. I’m not seeing how your post is political since Scripture is clear on this matter.
“All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.” 1 Tim. 6:1
(Also see Eph. 6:5 and Col. 3:22)
Can you imagine what would have happened in the early church if Peter and Paul told believing slaves to up and rebel against their masters?
Dignified labor is labor done for the Lord.
This is so convicting for me. I want God to give me a “bigger” job, one that requires some mental stimulation at least. :( In my heart I know that serving God in whatever He has given me to do is the greatest thing.
My sixth baby is slow in potty-training and maybe this is all just magnified at the moment….but seriously, thanks for writing that one sentence for me today.
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Anthony, you can’t say everything all the time or else you end up saying nothing.
Thanks Tim. I know this is hard and many union folks who have grown up in the 20th century will disagree, but there is nothing God honoring about a strike. There is no way to apply Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. (Colosians 3:22) in such a way that allows a worker to walk out, and refuse to work until his demans are satisfied.
I still hold to the right of a worker to lawfully strike if it can be justified . It is so easy to say stuff like , we need to work as unto the Lord and sound so pious and righteous , but the reality is often it is hard to fulfill this command . I have worked in jobs when I knew I was grossly underpaid , with supervisors who would manipulate people around you , being told you can be dismissed anytime etc… That is very demoralizing. In a free society , even as a Christan , we have the liberty to leave if one fills they are being used or the Employer is not a good fit. This doesn’t make one less spiritual . In fact I would argue some think they are more spiritual by working in a bad situation, that they are suffering for the Lord , when I think they are just dumb.
Paul even said to the slave , if you can be free , be free. There is nothing wrong in finding a way out of demoralizing job or away out from a boss that is unbearable. Plus I’m tired of sitting through sermons about the responsibility of the worker , when those who employ are barely mentioned in how they are also responsible as well, to pay fairly, provide a dignified work environment etc….
Work is good but in todays economy it can take on many different looks. I have decided to be self employed . It is not for everyone but I love the freedom that I’m accountable to only me and God .
@Michael: careful how you apply that text, it was also used to justify slavery in the States not too long ago….
Ironic that Wayne Grudem should use the example of making t-shirts……t-shirts are generally not made in the US and Canada anymore, and the less than ideal working conditions are well documented. Something tells me this is not the way ‘subduing the earth’ was intended.
I plead for a little more realistic view on labour among Christians….
Kees, I read “shirts,” not “t-shirts.”
Tim,This issue deserves a second post, one that tackles the question as to how a Christian should react to labour injustices, by the the use of withdrawing one’s servvices (striking). Is striking ever an option for a Christian? So if a Christian doesn’t go on strike should they ever reap the benefits of those who did? My wife works as a teacher. She has an option not to strike when the teacher’s union (which she doesn’t belong to) calls a strike. But what if after striking better conditions, wages, work place safety, teaching outcomes.child safety etc etc improve for everyone, should she benefit from the efforts put in by others to negotiate these improvements? Sometimes progress in these areas has only been achieved by withdrawing of service.
I think in a country that gives rights to it’s people to have fair employment conditions, that it’s okay to strike if the employer is getting fat and rich from abusing workers in different ways. There is a line that can be walked here without being biblically unfaithful, imho.
Balance….let’s find it.
Reg, the article was against striking, not quitting.
You can quit for any number of reasons. You have no obligation to stay, if you are an ‘at will’ employee.
Striking involves hanging around outside picketing, not working.
Marie - I know the article was about striking . Like at said at the beginning . I pointed towards leaving a job as a option if you find yourself in position that is not healthy or if it is not a good fit.Which I should have been clearer about my intent . However I do still contend that at times walking off a job can be justified . Not all strikes are equal .For safety reasons or workers under a harassing management , I contend it is just.
As a fellow involved in my first strike, and as a Christian, I’ve had to work through a lot of these things for my own situation. Can’t say I disagree with your post and the dignity of labour, but the implication (perhaps not intended) that all strikes are wrong, well, that stroke is just too broad.
For example. My employer, when there were rumblings that some of the staff wanted to unionize, put out a statement that it would honour whatever the majority of the staff chose. So, they’re okay with us unionizing. As a part of that, they understood there would be talks for a first collective agreement. In the year or so that our negotiating team was meeting with the employer to work out the terms of this first collective agreement, it became apparent that the employer wished to change the terms of the staffs’ employment.
I had to work through the lesson from the Labourers in the Vineyard going into this strike. But our strike is to keep what was previously agreed upon (in a general sense as individuals.)
Anyway, in the case of my strike, the whole union, collective agreement, striking thing was tacitly agreed upon between the employer and the staff before the strike even happened. So, if I’m understanding that you think that all labour disruptions are wrong, well, I respectfully (because I really enjoy and have been edified so many times over the last few years by your posts) disagree.
I must admit that I’m a little surprised how many people seem to think that striking is biblically justifiable. (Not that anyone has actually given any biblical proof for it.) The text that immediately comes to mind for me is James 1:5-8.
James speaks about employers who were mistreating their employees. They withheld wages and “lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence” whilst they “condemned and murdered the righteous person.”
Yet James does not tell the workers to down tools and demand better working conditions. His advice is quite different: “Be patient, therefore, brothers until ths coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until he receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
Reg, I agree only if after taking the job for an agreed upon salary the employer capriciously lowered it. Around my town the only strikes I’ve seen have all been for the same reason, higher pay, more benefits. I currently work with a new boss and he is horrible; however, I agreed to work for this company for a set salary per hour for job performed. The minute my employer breaks that agreement I will start looking for another job. It’s not my company. While I’m here I will look to see how God wants me to grow in this situation. I just think it is unfair for me to agree to cut your lawn for $25 then demand $30. If you start throwing trash on the lawn to make my job harder, I will start looking for greener grass in another yard. Just my thoughts, God Bless.
I just finished reading the PDF where Tim has some of his absolute most amazing posts all gathered together in one little booklet for me to read. After reading it, I was amazed at his talented ability to write and think clearly.
Then I read this post.
I’m amazed a the difference. I think the argument he makes doesn’t really follow from his intro, and certainly doesn’t do a very good job at fielding very likely objections.
I don’t think that this is a political post, and I definitely do believe that Tim is writing what he believes is correct and God-honoring. That all said, this was one of the worst posts I can ever remember reading here. And this is coming from someone who loves this blog and almost everything that Tim puts out.
Mike Garner -please give reasons.
Stuart I wonder whether you are exegeting James 1 as it was meant to be read??
My question to Tim et al is to ask is it ever biblically justifiable for a Christian to strike?? Should a Christian indeed belong to a trade union??
It’s interesting that all the comments are about the legitimacy/illegitimacy of striking as such.
But it seems to me that the post was more about whether it’s really God-honoring to use a labor protest as an excuse to be lazy and uglify the world. Even if that’s not the main point, maybe most of us can agree on that much?