1 ADVOCATING WORKER JUSTICE: A CATHOLIC ETHICIST’S “TOOLKIT” GERALD J. BEYER *This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article, “Advocating Worker Justice: A Catholic Ethicist’s Toolkit,” Journal of Religious Ethics Vol. 45, No. 2 (2017): 226–250, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jore.12175/abstract. Copyright © 2017 Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc. A war against workers is occurring in the United States and across the globe. Neoliberal capitalism runs roughshod over workers in its relentless quest for cheaper labor markets and greater profits for the powerful capitalist class (see Gross 2010; Heymann 2006; Gallagher 2006; Senser 2009). 1 Labor law expert James Gross of Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations correctly claims that widespread “crimes against humanity…have been committed at workplaces around the country because so many workers are powerless and stand before their employers not as adult persons with rights but as children or servants dependent on the will and interests of their supervisors and employers” (2010, 194). Thus, it is imperative to reflect upon how religious traditions can more effectively practice solidarity with workers whose humanity has been degraded by violations of their rights, both in the United States and abroad. Christians can and should engage the rich biblical traditions, which have something to say regarding the rights and dignity of laborers. Leading Christian ethicists and theologians such as Joan M. Martin, Esther Reed, Joerg Reiger, and Melissa Snarr have fruitfully drawn upon the Bible in this vein (see Martin 2000; Rieger 2009; Reed 2010; Snarr 2011). This article will focus on concepts in Catholic moral theology conducive to advocating worker justice. First, it will briefly summarize Catholic teaching on workers’ rights, cooperation in evil, scandal, evangelization, and solidarity’s relationship to conflict. Given space limitations, this section 1 For a more positive but flawed assessment of workers’ situation in the global economy see Flanagan 2006.