Clash of Empires: Building Bridges in a Divided World
Earlier this month, Philip Jennings addressed a group of leading corporate communicators in London, with the request to “tell it as it is”. Speaking at the Arthur W Page annual meeting, to the theme, “Clash of Empires: Building Bridges to a divided world”, Jennings said that in terms of equality we were on the road to nowhere.
Jennings said, “Workers feel like they are standing on the famous half-built Avignon Bridge, with no sign of bridge-building from the corporate side."
“It is world of wealth cut off to working people, a global economy experience that does not work for them. This is no surprise when someone like corporate communications guru Martin Sorrell of WPP earns in 45 minutes what a UK average worker earns in a year and, just 62 people have the combined wealth of half the population of the planet."
“The reality is that in the aftermath of the financial crisis, one which was not of working people’s making, they are the ones paying cost.”
“In terms of inequality we are seeing a rupture in income and wealth distribution. A recent report from McKinsey showed that 65-70% of households in advanced economies on average were in income segments whose incomes in 2014 were flat or down compared to 2005. In the UK families were £40 per week worse since the crisis."
“In the USA it is estimated that the price of shrinking collective bargaining and the campaign against union representation has resulted in $133 billion in lost income, where CEO pay in the USA today has soared to 276 times the average wage. There are divides in the quality of work and a failure to appreciate the global jobs challenge.”
“According to the ILO, we need 600 million new jobs by 2030. And what of those in work? They face the ‘Uberisation’ of jobs with a rise in precarious work globally, from Japan with 2 million living in poverty to the UK with almost a million on zero- hours contracts.”
“All of this influences how people see the world with collapsing confidence in governments and business that are seen to want it all. This is fueling the rise of populists and protest votes from Trump to Brexit. Unions are key to developing an alternative vision. Trade unions are bridge builders and we know that another world is possible. A world that lives up to the standards of the UN’s SDGs, the Paris climate change agreement and where business and respect for human rights go hand in glove. "