Concluding Observations

Abstract

Concluding Observations David Begg I propose to offer some observations on the themes raised in the other papers, based on my own experience as a labour market practitioner over many years. Christian ethics has never been an abstract concept in industrial relations in Ireland. The establishment of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union in 1909 was a seminal moment. Up to then, trade unionism was mainly associated with the skilled trades. James Larkin sought to organise the labouring people into one big union (OBU). He came, he said, to bring ‘a divine gospel of discontent’. This approach was seen by the employers as a threat to their hegemony and Ireland saw considerable activism in pursuit of better wages and conditions, culminating in the 1913 Lockout. This dispute was forced on Larkin by the employers of Dublin, united under the leadership of William Martin Murphy. It continued for three months, causing great human suffering and eventually forcing the strikers back to work. Jim Larkin was a great orator prone to using scriptural references. In one speech he admonished the employers that they would ‘crucify Christ no longer in this town’. The irony of the 1913 Lockout is that the two main protagonists, Murphy and Larkin, were both staunch Catholics. Coming as it did, less than a quarter of a century after the promulgation of Rerum novarum by Pope Leo XIII, one might have expected this teaching to have had some influence on the parties to such a bitter dispute, but apparently it did not. Ireland, of course, has changed a great deal over the century since these events happened. One would not expect to find much reference to Christian ethics in what is now a secular society. But two recent events demonstrate that Christian ethics have a contemporary relevance in industrial matters. I am referring to the recent closure of the Wright bus factory in Ballymena, where laid-off workers protested that the €15 million gifted by the company to an Evangelical church had undermined the viability of the business. The second case I have in mind is a homily delivered by Fr Ollie O’Reilly, parish priest of Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan, in late September, in which he denounced attacks on executives of Quinn Industrial Holdings as being contrary to the Studies • volume 108 • number 432 469 Concluding Observations Gospel. He warned that, apart from being grievously wrong in themselves, these attacks, if they achieved their purpose, could also cost eight hundred families their livelihood. Catholic Social Teaching has exhibited an impressive consistency over the years from Rerum novarum to Laudato si’. It clearly informed the post-war consensus in which social democracy and Christian democracy dominated politics and Keynesian economics held sway.This was disrupted by the two oil crises of the 1970s, which caused ‘stagflation’and undermined Keynesianism. Into the gap stepped Milton Friedman, whose 1970 paper argued that the only social responsibility of business was to make profits. Thus began the neoliberal era in which executive pay is linked to share price, unions have been reduced in influence, and inequality and individualism now characterise the modern economy. Shareholder primacy alone dictated investment decisions and greed became respectable. Sadly, there is an irony here in that pension funds invested on behalf of workers are often the most demanding of shortterm investment decisions aimed at achieving high returns. Friedrich von Hayek was another ideologue similar to Friedman, who said he would like to see the phrase ‘social justice’ expunged from the English language. He complained bitterly that the Church had made social justice the core value of Catholic Social Teaching. In any event, scandals – Mirror Group, Poly Peck International, Enron etc. – caused the London Stock Exchange to realise the limitations of the greed is good philosophy. Sir Adrian Cadbury was commissioned to devise corporate governance rules to keep malfeasance in check. His 1992 report was the beginning of a corpus of corporate governance codes culminating in the G2O/OECD code in 2015. But these initiatives, though necessary, were not sufficient, as evidenced by the 2008 banking crisis and more recent scandals relating to vehicle emissions. In truth, economics has become detached from ethics. The problems associated with the doctrine...