wfn.org | CHURCHES ISSUE HARD HITTING REPORT ON UNEMPLOYMENT

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

April 11, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, U.K

[97.4.2.4]

BRITAIN AND IRELAND: CHURCHES ISSUE HARD HITTING REPORT ON UNEMPLOYMENT

(CCBI and ACNS) An ecumenical report launched this week has challenged
governments, political parties and Churches to consider afresh the issue
of unemployment and the future of work in Britain and Ireland.

The Report - Unemployment and the Future of Work, was launched by the
Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland and coincides with a British
election campaign. Introducing the Report at a press conference on
Tuesday 8 April, Bishop David Sheppard, the Chairman of the reports
sponsoring body said that Politicians are not the only people who can
bring about change: the Churches should properly be seen among the
opinion formers who can change the climate of opinion.  Then policies,
which may today seem unthinkable, start to be seen as possible.  Our
hope and prayer is that this Report will help to change the order of
priorities for the nation.

The Report says that the climate of public opinion needs to change so
that governments can make the quantity and quality of employment a top
priority for social and economic policy. Public opinion, although it
consistently expresses the belief that unemployment is a great evil, has
not been effectively mobilised to demand a remedy the Report states.

The Report calls for good employment for everyone. Work, it says should
be seen as service to God and to one another; no one should be excluded
for it. In a market economy, this means access to paid work, and to work
which produces something of real value to the community. OA high level
of unemployment says the Report, Has come to be taken for granted in the
national consciousness, although it is recognized that it causes social
breakdown and personal tragedy...It is wrong in such prosperous times as
ours for men and women to be deprived for long periods of the chance to
earn a living.

The Report attacks the complacency it sees in British and Irish society
which allows divisions in society to endure and to widen.  It also
attacks the fatalism which says that nothing can be done.  It claims
that there can be enough good jobs for everyone if that aim is given a
high enough priority. It says that employers need to see providing good
jobs, as well as good products, as one of their most important
contributions to the well-being of society.  People in well-paid, secure
jobs, and their representatives in trade unions, need to accept
responsibility for helping those with poor jobs or no jobs at all.

The Report challenges the present British election campaign and the
parties that are promising low taxation. It says that at a time of
poverty and unemployment in society it is wrong to give priority to the
claims of those who are already well off. None of the political parties
has put forward a programme which offers much real hope of improvement
to those in greatest need.

The Report also describes and assesses a number of policy options.  it
concludes that the aim of providing enough good jobs would call for some
sacrifices, higher taxation for many people but could be achieved over a
period of years or perhaps decades.

The Report which was conducted for the Council of Churches for Britain
and Ireland has received widespread comment  in the British press and
media. The enquiry was conducted over a period of 18 months throughout
Britain and Ireland and its launch had been planned before the date of
the election was known.  Members of the sponsoring group include a
number of Anglican clergy including: the Bishop of Wolverhampton, the Rt
Revd Michael Bourke, the Ven John Davies from Wales, the Rt Revd Dr
Gordon McMullan from the Church of Ireland and Bishop Peter Selby,
Bishop-designate of Worcester was  a member of the working party. While
addressed to the British and Irish population the report also provides a
theological overview of the importance of work for the peoples dignity.