By their fruits you shall know them: can Catholics make a difference for justice in the business world?

In the dining room of a Guatemala City guest house, a group of Americans is clustered around a big map of Guatemala. They are watching an animated representative from the union syndicate Unsitragua jabbing his right forefinger at points along the country's Pacific coast.

"There, there, and all along here," he says, North American multinational companies, including Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands, are operating banana plantations that their corporate officials claim are independently run small enterprises. The union rep complains that Unsitragua is not allowed near these plantations, but if they are run by multinational companies, the union has the right to try to organize the workers.

While the visitors from the United States--a delegation of teachers, business-people, and church employees from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati--sip tea, the union coordinator studies each of their faces. Speaking through a translator, he tells the group that if companies are engaged in these kinds of operations, they are bypassing Guatemalan laws limiting foreign companies' ownership of farms by setting up local "fronts" for the corporation.

"I hope you will tell the people of Cincinnati that this is going on down here," the representative says. "Ask Chiquita if they are doing this. They will listen to you."

Michael Gable, director of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's Missions Office, nods thanks to the man and then explains to the delegation the history of the long-standing economic relationship between Cincinnati and Central America. Coffee beans and bananas grown in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and parts of Mexico have helped to fuel the engines of such venerated icons of American capitalism as consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble, fruit company Chiquita Brands International, and the nation's largest grocer, the Korger Company--all based in Cincinnati.

Gradually it dawns on the group that much of the stable and diverse economy that has provided relatively high-paying jobs and other benefits to the people of the greater Cincinnati region has been built on the backs of Central American and other Third World workers.

The delegation had made its way to Guatemala City as part of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's initiative "Global Solidarity: Focus Central America." Launched in 1998, the five-year program was directed by a group that included a former Chiquita executive, local social activists, instructors at Cincinnati's Xavier University, and staff of the archdiocese's mission and social-action offices.

The initiative has provided an intriguing experiment in involving Catholic business leaders in examining how principles of Catholic social teaching might be applied in practical ways by multinational corporations.

Two of its aims have been to create awareness among consumers about the plight of Central American workers and to promote greater ethical sensitivity at Chiquita, Procter & Gamble, and Kroger. Church leaders have talked with company bosses about workers' rights. Procter & Gamble, which produces Folgers and Mill-stone coffees, has been urged to purchase fair-trade coffee. The dialogue has also explore how globalization has forced workers from the same Central American countries where these companies have banana and coffee plantations to emigrate to Cincinnati.

The members of the Guatemala delegation as well as others involved in the initiative were brought to ponder their place in this economic universe: What responsibilities do Catholic business executives have to seek the greater good, even when it may be in conflict with achieving financial goals or other corporate objectives? What can individuals do to effect change, to make sure that their own companies are doing what they can to provide for the poor?

Do Catholics have an obligation within their secular vocations to place the church's call for social justice in front of other demands? In a difficult economic environment, how should a company deal with issues such as just wages and workforce reductions? Do Catholic businesspeople actually embrace the tenets of Catholic social teaching and act upon them, or do they either ignore or pay lip service to them and carry on with business as usual?

The beginnings of the Global Solidarity initiative go back to 1998, when the Cincinnati Enquirer published a multi-part series about Chiquita that alleged management had forced workers to apply pesticides and herbicides to crops without wearing protective clothing. The stories cited other allegations of numerous improprieties--including confrontations with unions on its farms, clandestine management of the private plantations that the Unsitragua representative had referred to, and broad charges of worker exploitation.

Although the newspaper was later forced to retract the story--paying an unprecedented $10 million settlement to the firm because a reporter illegally gained access to Chiquita's corporate voice-mail system--the company was put on the defensive as its practices became the subject of public scrutiny. As lose Obregon, a 27-year management veteran with Chiquita based in Honduras, notes, "A lot of what was reported was false, but a lot was true, too"

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati became embroiled in the controversy when, shortly after these revelations, it accepted a large financial contribution from Carl Lindner, chairman of the board at Chiquita. This spurred members of the archdiocese's Social Action and World Peace Commission and the priests' council into action. They urged a fact-finding project focusing on the operations of Cincinnati multinational companies in Central America.

Taking stock

"There are several endeavors by the church and [church people] that try to make sense out of globalization on some local, tangible level" says Sister Ruth Kuhn, S.C. Kuhn is director of her congregation's corporate responsibility committee, which watches over its investments, particularly in the stock market. In addition to various initiatives such as the Global Solidarity program that try to engage Catholic business leaders, many dioceses and religious congregations throughout the United States have in recent years become involved in influencing corporations as investors, Kuhn notes.

"Often we can say that we have shown some of these companies the light, a better way that often also reflects a better bottom line." At other times church-led stockholder initiatives simply consist of letting companies know that their practices need to be closely examined.

A couple of years ago, at Kuhn's request, the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati divested themselves of their AT&T stock when they learned that the telecommunications giant had decided to carry the Hot Network, an adult movie cable channel.

The protest was costly for the congregation, Kuhn said. They sold a substantial number of shares at a loss. But she said the message the congregation sent to AT&T was more important than any profit they may have earned by holding onto the stock.

The result of the Sisters of Charity's complaint, as well as calls made by numerous other shareholders across the country, was that last year AT&T got out of the porn business altogether.

"The church calls us to become involved in issues such as these," says Kuhn, "issues such as fair wages, dealing with wage disparity in large corporations, dealing with the creation of codes of conduct within a company. You have to realize, going in, that working on these kinds of projects--whether investment management or coordinating with the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to do the right thing--all take time." But Kuhn says she finds these efforts worthwhile because they answer the church's call to serve the common good.

Applied social teaching

"If business managers really use Catholic social teaching as a principle for their daily work lives, then they will understand that everything boils down to the dignity of the human being in all corners," says Bob Ehrsam, a former Chiquita manager and a leader in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's Global Solidarity initiative. "That is especially true in ... the challenges of globalization. It's trickier out there now. There are moral minefields everywhere for someone claiming to have a Christian perspective on running a business."

Part of the message of Catholic social teaching (see box below) has been a call to recognize that the needs of the poor take priority over the desires of the rich; the rights of workers over the maximization of profits; and the preservation of the environment over uncontrolled industrial expansion. The bishops have challenged Catholics in the United States to make a fundamental "option for the poor" in the marketplace.

But within the context of the global economy, opting for the poor, promoting human dignity, and pursuing the common good often appear at odds with a business culture that "demands efficiency and profitability at nearly any cost," says Ehrsam.

Ehrsam says he experienced this firsthand in confrontations with his former bosses at Chiquita. He had closely read the U.S. Catholic bishops' 1986 pastoral letter on the economy called Economic justice for All and looked for ways to apply some of its message to his own decisions.

"I had to pick and choose where I made my stand," he says. In charge of several areas of purchasing, he worked to eliminate the time-honored tradition of bribing corrupt government officials. And he refused to award contracts to agricultural companies in Honduras that were known to be polluting the environment.

"It was easy to speak up, but sometimes I know I sounded countercultural within the company. I was asking questions about issues such as safety and the environment and whether we were doing the moral thing. But ultimately we helped set many of these issues straight," even if ethical solutions were first dismissed as too costly. "I think that Chiquita came to realize that, at least in a lot of cases, decisions that were framed in good, moral, Catholic social thinking also turned out to be good business decisions."

Ehrsam particularly questioned the company's strategy of union-busting in Central America.

"For years I had urged the owners of the company to sit down and rethink the time and energy they spent trying to dismantle their organized labor structure," he recalls. "It seemed like a foolish business strategy to me. I wasn't just concerned about the bottom line, but I also knew that these unions were critical in helping workers attain the rights they had already gained, such as certain wage rates and living standards.

"Ultimately I showed my bosses that the amount of time and resources they spent in union-busting was more than they would have to give up in any concessions made to the unions. It was an eye-opener for the owners," And it was also a way for Ehrsam to put into practice in his own workplace the lessons he had learned from Catholic social teaching.

Not-so-splendid isolation

In the global marketplace, where sweatshops and child labor are common and unethical practices have been allowed to thrive, the absence of an ethical framework exposes people to the ever-present temptation of greed, says Father Oliver Williams, C.S.C., an associate professor of management at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. Recent examples include implosions at the energy firm Enron, accounting giant Arthur Andersen, global communications company WorldCom, and a whole host of Wall Street investment banking firms.

"Capitalism has won out," says Williams. "It has demonstrated that it can produce wealth better than any other system. It's flawed, however, because it doesn't distribute that wealth very well. With that comes the constant that we are all humans, and human nature, while not necessarily corrupt, is certainly wounded. Greed is ever present; it is something we have to guard against, especially when we sit in places of power."

It is at those seats of power--in business boardrooms and executive offices--where recognition of the rights and dignity of the individual human being and the priority of the common good ought to be examined most closely but appear to be farthest from people's minds.

"With globalization has come an isolation of business leaders" says Bill Droel, a founder of the Chicago-based Business Leaders for Excellence, Ethics, and Justice (BEEJ). The group started in response to the challenge the U.S. Catholic bishops issued to business leaders in Economic Justice for All.

Droel notes that he sees very little of what might be called "civic culture" remaining in his corner of the world. Corporate leaders, he says, are making decisions in an echo chamber, talking to the same colleagues day after day. They listen to their management and corporate directors, but they are not hearing from their peers or anyone outside their businesses.

Forums for discussion about how to work toward the common good that existed in the past have mostly evaporated or become ineffective. Corporate enterprises often operate in locations far from the home office. Droel believes this has led to a dangerous isolation of business decision-makers from the rest of the world.

Love and layoffs

Several Catholic-led initiatives today attempt to counter that sense of moral isolation within the halls of business. Some of them are academically sponsored programs such as the Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. In the program, corporate chiefs spend days or weeks examining issues such as the ethical considerations in corporate takeovers or how to create an ethical corporate climate. Participants at Woodstock-sponsored gatherings have come from such places as the Brookings Institute, Chase Manhattan Bank, FMC Corporation, and the World Bank.

But even more interesting is Woodstock's nationwide business conference, comprised of 19 chapters of business leaders in Washington, Milwaukee, and New York City, among other urban centers, which addresses the practical day-to-day issues confronting business leaders against the backdrop of scripture readings and with topical background articles. Terry Armstrong, director of the Woodstock Business Conference, says participants discuss these topics in a way that promotes greater understanding, sound decision-making, and action grounded in moral values.

Conference members are invited to participate in a process modeled after the Jesuits' 30-day Ignatian retreat, Armstrong notes. It takes up to a couple of years to fully examine an issue such as moral decision-making, lay vocations in the marketplace, or pursuing values in business.

Lofty ideals, certainly. But the objective is to put the lessons learned from these discussions to work.

Exploring those lessons was what energized Gregory F. Augustine Pierce, owner of ACTA Publications and an active member of BEEJ--which constitutes the Chicago unit of the Woodstock Business Conference.

"There are no simple answers, especially in this discussion" about being a responsible business manager, Pierce says. "So we are not trying to come up with simple answers. Our group of business leaders is seeking to find some wisdom in each other's experience and then apply that as best we can in our own companies."

In the years since the group's founding, business leaders who have been involved in the Chicago dialogue have examined issues such as how a company might deal with layoffs, the need for stewardship in business, just wages, and the ethical formation of the business executive.

"We sit down and tackle very tough issues," Pierce says. "There isn't any 'What would Jesus do?' in this. We will really dig into an issue for a couple years, looking at it inside and out, and we frame it in an ethical context. We ask, 'How do we get the courage to do what needs to be done [and] to do the right thing?' And then we ask, 'How does the church help us do all that?'

"This group gives people what they can't get anywhere else," Pierce says. "You don't have these kinds of discussions in the secular arena. This is a unique perspective where Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. And we see if there is a way that you can run a business successfully in a capitalist economy and still be true to your religious faith. After 15 years, we are still at it."

One of the first studies the Chicago group tackled was dealing with layoffs.

"The members of our group are by and large small business owners, so the worry about laying somebody off is a real issue, a real person, not some number," he says. "It was a real issue of 'How do you really love somebody, then lay them off?' We had members of our group who faced that very question when it was a family member who had to be let go. It becomes an issue of studying the results of your decision. In this case, what if you don't lay them off? Does your company survive or do you go under? And if you don't survive, what are the results of that? Many more people are affected by your decision to save one job. Tough calls, very tough decisions."

The primary benefit of the Chicago project is the mutual support the business leaders offer each other. And that mutual support is critical for successful application of Catholic social thought in the long haul, says Notre Dame's Williams.

Taking a stand

But sometimes businesspeople find themselves in situations that require actions where support may not immediately be available. That was the case for Julia Wagner, a research and development employee at Procter & Gamble.

In late 2002 Wagner learned by way of a company e-mail that P&G was releasing its first ever policy governing how the consumer goods giant could conduct stem-cell research--studies that scientists believe show great promise in fighting diseases such as Parkinson's, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.

"The policy left the door open, just a tiny crack, for the company to conduct embryonic stem-cell research," she says. According to the policy, P&G would attempt other forms of stem-cell research first, such as adult stem-cell studies and research on animal materials, but it clearly defined P&G's steps toward embryonic studies.

"From the beginning, when the policy was issued, I started a lot of conversations with fellow workers within the halls of Procter & Gamble because I was uncomfortable with the policy. It was in direct conflict with my faith."

Wagner contacted leadership at her parish, and she ultimately asked the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to weigh in on the company's policy. She e-mailed employees she knew were Catholic and posted information on a company bulletin board that corporate chiefs monitored, asking them for comments and why such a policy was deemed necessary. Meanwhile, Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk issued a statement questioning P&G's policy, noting that if embryonic stem-cell research was on the horizon for the firm, it was in the wrong.

Scott Syfert, an engineer for Procter & Gamble, also spoke out, noting that "Procter is a great company ... but in this particular case, they made a mistake."

A company spokeswoman said that Procter currently was not conducting any studies using embryonic stem cells, but they reserved the right to do so. Wagner says she maintains her vigil on the matter, noting that she sometimes worries about her job but realizes the issue is more important than her own career.

Bearing fruit

Not everyone will face the same kinds of challenges that Julia Wagner did at Procter & Gamble. Most people will not have to argue to their bosses that it might actually be more profitable for them to leave unions in place rather than trying to undermine their efforts without regard to the company's cost. Small business owners certainly hope they will not have to lay off employees.

But being in business--whether as an owner, a CEO, or even a middle manager--places one in a position where these kinds of decisions can come into play. Some business leaders will defend practices such as remaining union-free as necessary for maintaining their businesses' competitiveness. When asked to enter into discussions of business ethics with church people, corporate captains often complain that the church lacks the necessary understanding of the business world. Defending a worker's right to strike is not exactly a popular stance in corporate boardrooms.

And yet listening to former Chiquita man Bob Ehrsam or Chicago business owner Gregory Pierce talk about their struggles to run successful businesses while keeping an eye on the moral tiller, one gets the impression that if you work hard enough at doing what is right, you will begin to see your efforts bear fruit.

Global Solidarity certainly offers evidence of that. Over the past few years Chiquita Brands International has introduced a code of conduct, an independent outside "ethics audit," and an annual corporate responsibility statement into the overall reporting of its operations.

"Chiquita should be commended for the efforts they are making" in corporate responsibility, notes Sister Kuhn, who has been involved in discussions with the company since the creation of Global Solidarity.

And near the end of the five-year program, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's Michael Gable began engaging Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini of San Marcos, Guatemala and Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Tegucigalpa, Honduras in discussions about Central Americans now living in the Cincinnati region. At every opportunity, Gable asked the prelates to meet with the corporate bosses at Chiquita and Procter & Gamble, discussing issues primarily concerning the welfare of their people both in the United States and in their respective countries.

Most recently, in the fall of 2003, Ramazzini gave a talk at Cincinnati's Hispanic ministry center, Su Casa, about the potential of fair-trade coffee for workers in San Marcos. Fair-trade coffee programs were presented to the parish representatives and businesspeople who were on hand to listen.

In a remarkable moment, Procter & Gamble announced that it, too, was interested in purchasing fair-trade coffee from workers such as those in Ramazzini's Diocese of San Marcos. (It currently offers one fair-trade certified coffee selection under its Millstone brand.) And in an unrelated development soon after that decision, organic, fair-trade beans from Equal Exchange, a Boston-based firm, finally began showing up in local Kroger stores.

P&G's fair-trade coffee announcement "is one tiny success out of all of the work we put into Global Solidarity," Gable says. "But it proves that you can have successes if you work at it. You can't give up. You have to keep trying and trying and trying. That's true in business and in life."

Resources

Business Leaders for Excellence, Ethics and Justice (BEEJ) www.crossroads-center.org/beej

Woodstock Business Conference www.georgetown.edu/centers/ woodstock/wbc.htm

Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide and Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business www.ethicalbusiness.nd.edu www.nd.edu/~ethics

Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility www.iccr.org

Business for Social Responsibility www.bsr.org

Global Solidarity: Focus Central America www.catholiccincinnati.org/mission/ globalsolidarity.shtml

Economic Justice for All and other Catholic social teaching documents www.osispm.org/cst

LESSONS FROM CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

Catholic social teaching has been clear in demanding that serving the common good should be the No. 1 priority for businesses ever since Rerum Novarum, the 1891 landmark church statement that defined the moral obligations for business management and workers.

Nearly a century after Pope Leo XIII's social encyclical, the U.S. bishops issued Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, a pastoral letter that further defined the obligations for business managers in the new era of globalization. The bishops' 1986 pastoral letter has been particularly important for discussions among Catholic business leaders today as they struggle to define the common good and to establish their own moral frameworks from which to operate.

On the 10th anniversary of the pastoral letter, the bishops issued a summary of Catholic social teaching on the economy in 10 key principles. Called A Catholic Framework for Economic Life, these principles are:

1. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy.

2. All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family, and serve the common good.

3. A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.

4. All people have a right to life and to secure the basic necessities of life (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, a safe environment, and economic security).

5. All people have the 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 worker associations.

6. All people, to the extent that they are able, have a corresponding duty to work, a responsibility to provide for the needs of their families, and an obligation to contribute to the broader society.

7. In economic life, free markets have both clear advantages and limits; government has essential responsibilities and limitations; voluntary groups have irreplaceable roles but cannot substitute for the proper working of the market and the just policies of the state.

8. Society has a moral obligation, including governmental action where necessary, to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs, and pursue justice in economic life.

9. Workers, owners, managers, stockholders, and consumers are moral agents in economic life. By our choices, initiative, creativity, and investment, we enhance or diminish economic opportunity, community life, and social justice.

10. The global economy has moral dimensions and human consequences. Decisions on investment, trade, aid, and development should protect human life and promote human rights, especially for those most in need wherever they might live on this globe.