Madam, - As an observer of the circumstances surrounding the Irish Ferries dispute, it seems to me that the management appear to have a rather unbalanced approach to the principals of the free market economy, believing they should be able to cherry-pick and manipulate these to suit their needs.
They constantly invoke this free market and its forces in their defence of this shameful outsourcing and diminution of work standards. Yet, one of the main tenets of economic viability remains the simple fact that if outgoings exceed profits then you're no longer commercially viable and cease to trade. They seek to remain competitive on the back of what amounts to little more than slave labour and a trampling on hard-won workers' rights, and, as other contributors have noted, the handsome managerial salaries mysteriously don't appear to effect commercial viability at all. In addition to this, governmental condemnations ring extremely hollow when it appears that the same Government endorsed EU legislation, as recently as last year, which would allow this state of affairs to occur (The Irish Times, November 30th).
There is little doubt that this amounts to a test case. If Irish Ferries emerge as the victors it will have far reaching repercussions for our future society. Greed, xenophobia and an every-man-for-himself attitude will flourish. This was amply illustrated by Fintan O'Toole (Opinion, November 28th). It seems that the "á la carte capitalists" of Irish Ferries want to have their proverbial cake and eat it. - Yours, etc,
DAVID MARLBOROUGH, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6w.
A chara, - The controversy at Irish Ferries raises the far broader issue of how well (or badly) the current capitalist system is serving us, in Ireland and elsewhere. In Ireland at least, it seems that Government ministers, union leaders and business heads raise their voices only during a crisis. The wider question about where we go in the long term is never tackled.
It is now widely accepted that the free market very often doesn't provide optimum solutions. Why is this not discussed? Why is the free market orthodoxy not challenged at every opportunity? There is a need to develop better ways of defining and predicting market failures. What arm of government is working on this?
At a very high level there is good reason to believe that the preponderant Anglo-Saxon model is seriously flawed. Markets operate by the quarter, and hugely powerful corporations take decisions on this basis, while society must think in longer cycles. What are the consequences of this disharmony and how can it be redressed? Moreover, corporations are not delivering for all stakeholders; increasingly the shareholder is king, the employee takes all the hits while senior managers collect obnoxiously large bonuses regardless of bottom lines.
Workers are simply told that in today's world, they must be flexible and are frowned upon for asking, why is my job insecure? Big companies measure success only in terms of money while their actions have effects on the environment and society that are far harder to measure. Some of the smarter ones, alert to growing awareness of these issues, are now making a token gesture in their advertising campaigns, but who really believes they are fundamentally changing? And why should they? Again government fails to take the lead.
Much of what is said above could be applied to any Western country. It is all put down to globalisation, and again, we are told, we have no choice. Outsourcing is good for profits, cheap immigrant labour is good for profits, and low corporate tax is good for profits. But India and China are outbidding us for cheap labour (and cheap brain power), and countries such as Estonia are now beating us with even lower taxes. What should we do: join the race to the bottom and hope for the best? If these are global problems, they call for global solutions. The first step is a more mature approach to the debate - less ideology, more honesty, and far more political courage.
The second step is to engage other Western countries, some of which, such as France, have been having the debate for some time. Efforts there have yet to provide solutions, but at least the right questions are being asked. - Is mise,
CIARAN MAC AONGHUSA, Carrickmont Drive, Churchtown, Dublin 14.