Copyright 1996 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Wisconsin State Journal
Business Must See A Higher Standard
November 17, 1996 There are those who will suggest that the term ''business ethics'' is an oxymoron -- that corporations cannot, and perhaps should not, be expected to meet basic standards of conduct.
But, in a capitalist society, to accept such a ''reality'' is to surrender any hope for an end to child servitude, work-related deaths and injuries, corporate flight, downsizing, layoffs and other abuses of the relationship between employer and employee.
Surely, there is evidence that many corporations have abandoned their most basic responsibilities. A new United Nations study reveals that more than 250 million 5- to 14-year-olds are currently forced to work each day. A troublingly large number of them are ''employed'' by U.S.-based firms -- we have all heard the stories of children in southern Asia making Nike soccer balls.
No matter how one defines ''business ethics,'' it is impossible to imagine a scenario in which the use of child labor can be justified. Yet this most horrendous of abuses goes on, with all too little attention from the American business and academic community.
That is why last week's Grainger Business Ethics Symposium on ''Ethics in International Business'' was such a refreshing forum.
Held at the UW School of Business, the symposium brought officials of major corporations -- Levi Strauss & Co., United Airlines, Mobil, and Oppenheimer & Co. -- together with academics and fair trade advocates.
The provocative discussion was highlighted by a keynote address from 13-year-old Canadian activist Craig Kielburger, a leading international campaigner against child labor abuses by corporations and governments.
''There are over 200 million children working in child servitude around the world,'' says Kielburger. ''Is it right to have children in Pakistan sitting on the floor 12 hours a day sewing those famous brand-name soccer balls that they will never get to play with?''
There is something deeply troubling about the fact that it is still a child who must ask the questions that corporate executives should be addressing. But, perhaps, a change is coming. Perhaps, a new approach to ''business ethics'' is being defined.
The participation of enlightened business executives in the Grainger symposium is evidence of progress, as is the growing willingness of moral leaders to speak out on these issues.
The nation's Catholic bishops last week approved a ''Catholic Framework for Economic Life,'' which declares that economic life must be subject to moral principles and that all people have a right to basic necessities such as food, shelter, education, health care and a safe environment.
Warning that ''free markets have both clear advantages and limits,'' the bishops argue that ''all people have a right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefits, to decent working conditions as well as to organize and join unions or other associations.''
When the bishops issued a similar statement a decade ago, it was derided by conservatives as being out of touch with the Reagan era enthusiasm for unrestrained free markets and an ''anything goes'' approach by business.
But if we have learned one thing over the past decade, it is that in business, an economic bottom line too frequently obscures the moral bottom line. And workers -- many of them children -- are the losers.
The world is crying out for a new commitment to ethical approaches in business. And if corporations fail to hear that cry, they must be reminded of it by religious, academic and political leaders -- and by consumers, who should weigh moral concerns as highly as price and quality in making each purchase.
*The views in this space are provided by The Capital Times, Dane County's afternoon newspaper. You can respond by e-mail to ([email protected]) or by regular mail to Voice of the People, PO Box 8060, Madison, WI 53708.
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