When corporations refuse to practice due diligence by not establishing grievance mechanisms for remedy of abuses against the hidden 94% of their workforce in their global supply chains, they perpetuate a depraved model of profit-making that has driven inequality to a level now seen as a global risk in itself.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the responsibility of corporations to address worker grievances in their supply chains to prevent inequality.
Sharan Burrow's quote emphasizes the critical role that corporations play in ensuring fairness and accountability within their global supply chains. By neglecting to set up proper grievance mechanisms for the vast majority of their workforce, companies not only fail to uphold ethical standards but also contribute to systemic inequality, which poses risks not just to individuals but to society as a whole. This highlights the broader implications of corporate practices on global welfare and stability.
In practice
During a corporate social responsibility seminar, one might use this quote to stress the importance of ethical practices in supply chains.
What Qatar chose is a system where a worker is owned by his employer. When your employer forces you to live in squalor, makes you work longest hours in extreme heat, doesn't allow you to change jobs, doesn't pay your wages on time, abuses you physically and psychologically, you have no way out, you can't leave. You are trapped.
There is no doubt that the participation of women in the workforce is a serious productivity boost, but to enable this ambition, there must be investment in care - child care, aged care, disability care, health, and education - which are essential social support structures to enable women to work.
The present tax codes inhibit the mobility and formation of capital, add complexities and inequities which undermine the morale of the taxpayer, and make tax avoidance rather than market factors a prime consideration in too many economic decisions.
Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.
I am in favor of high wages and agree that the higher the wages, the stronger the evidence of prosperity, provided (and that is the important point) they are so naturally, by the effectiveness of industry, and not in consequence of an inflated currency or any artificial regulation.
If the Republican Party continues to take the view that there must be no tax increases, we're stuck. Capitalism can't work without safety nets or fiscal prudence, and we need both in a sustainable balance.
The reason we should do a carbon tax is because it's the right thing to do. It's economics 101, elementary stuff.
We will not have any more crashes in our time.
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