President, Members of the Trades Union Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am delighted and honoured to be the first Archbishop of Canterbury to address the Trades Union Congress.

It is a personal pleasure for me to speak from this rostrum because I come here as a former loyal member of the ETU and of NALGO. You may feel that that is rather an odd coupling. Exposure to these two contrasting traditions must surely have given me some experience useful for my present job, especially for coping with doctrinal disputes!

More importantly, this is an opportunity to reaffirm some fundamental values which the Christian Churches have in common with the Trades Union Movement. It is an opportunity to reflect on the inspiration and support which the Christian faith has offered to the Trades Union Movement in Britain and throughout the world, and to point out that much of the work of Trade Unions is the advancement of Christian Kingdom values, whether or not the trade unionists concerned are associated with any particular Church or denomination.

Now of course there is a view of religion articulated by the poet who said that after church on Sunday:

"The service over, God returns to heaven
And stays there till next Sunday at eleven."

It is a view of the Christian faith that I, for one, reject.

As so many key figures in the history of trade unionism have known so well, true Christianity is a seven-day-a-week affair and it impacts on who we are and how we lead our lives in every sphere - in the workplace as much as anywhere. That is why people with a strong Christian commitment have always been prominently represented among those who have taken the lead in working class labour and political organisations in this country.

We should all give thanks that there has never been and - God willing - will never be in Britain the hostility between trade union organisations and the Christian Churches which has featured in the history of some other European countries. In this country, it was people driven by a faith in our Lord who were pioneers in forming the first trade union organisations in the world. Many early trade unionist leaders knew little of the French Revolution but they did know the Scriptures and were inspired by them.

On the other hand, you might point out that there has not always been a conspicuous showing by Bishops and other Church leaders on the side of unions of working people. Very true - but there have always been notable exceptions.

I think, for example, of the pioneering work of the Earl of Shaftesbury, a high Tory Anglican, whose compassion for the chimney boys and factory girls found its practical expression in legislation. He was by no means alone among Evangelicals and other Christians in drawing attention to the plight of poor people and the need for action.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Manning became a great hero of the Labour Movement, especially for his part in helping to achieve justice and peace in 1889 in the great Dock Strike. He was in turn a key influence in establishing the great body of social teaching set forth by successive Popes.

In the Church of England, the stream of Christian Socialism had swollen into a substantial river by the First World War, and an Archbishops' Committee of Inquiry into Christianity and Industrial Problems in 1918 proclaimed that: "Christians cannot acquiesce in the undue subordination of human beings to the exigencies of any mechanical or economic system", and went on to argue strongly for minimum wages, maximum hours, better legislation on health and safety and strong support for trade unions.

You may know that my predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928, Randall Davidson, leaned towards Socialist sympathies and during the General Strike of 1926 he proposed a compromise formula which the BBC refused to broadcast as too subversive. I do not suppose that Sir Christopher Bland would treat me that way now, so it just shows that the BBC has changed, too! Above all, the great Archbishop William Temple put the Church of England firmly in the camp of those who uphold the essential dignity of working people. He was passionately concerned to apply Christianity to create greater justice in the social order, not least in the world of work; he was a great champion of the unemployed; and helped create the climate for the foundation of the Welfare State after the Second World War.

In the 1980's, the Churches were in the forefront of the challenge to the monetarism, one-eyed individualism and more extreme libertarian philosophies which characterised the rhetoric of that period. Faith in the City was a far cry from the Church of Barchester Towers. The Church highlighted the grave social and economic divisions which were widening, rather than narrowing, and challenged them in the name of human solidarity and love of neighbour inspired by the Christian faith.

More widely, in their preaching and teaching on a range of different issues in the light of the Gospel, I think that the Churches can claim to have played a part in shifting the accent of thinking and debate from a culture of individual independence which was prominent in the 1980's to a greater emphasis on inter-dependence which is more prevalent today, and which is more in tune with the values of the Trade Union Movement.

So our history suggests that we have some very important common values and interests. But what about our concerns as we look to the future? Let us look at the world of work. We share a vital concern for the dignity of work. I identify myself with the position set out in the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference document The Common Good towards the end of last year but held also by the other Churches: "The Church insists that an employed person is a full human being, not a commodity to be bought and sold according to market requirements." And again: "Workers have rights which . . . include the right to decent work, to just wages, to security of employment to adequate rest and holidays, to limitation of hours of work, to health and safety protection, to non-discrimination, to form and join trade unions, and, as a last resort, to go on strike."

I cannot see that it is consistent with ecumenical Christian social concern for workers to be denied a say in those decisions which concern them in a large part of their lives, or to be denied a right to be represented by a trade union of their own choice in dealings with their employers. I believe that, in broad terms, employers have a moral responsibility to recognise the chosen representatives of their employees; and that it is unjust when people suffer victimisation on grounds of their membership of an independent union or participation in its legitimate activities.

But I am talking about more than working conditions and workers' rights, vital as they are. The dignity of work is also about participating in the common life, about making a useful contribution to our fellow citizens, about being part of a community of work, even about fulfilling part of our humanity. It is those who are denied employment who understand this most keenly. And in the context of the most welcome current concern to encourage youngsters and long-term unemployed people from welfare to work, the trade unions surely have a substantial role to play - in helping to ensure that the work and training on offer is of decent quality, in working with employers to help prepare young people for the world of work, in reaching out to those entering the labour market to make them feel part of a dignified community of work where they can know and develop themselves better.

Secondly, do we not share some important, continuing convictions about the goals of economics? We know from bitter experience - social and environmental - that market forces are very good servants but bad masters. Few will deny that wealth must be created before it can be shared. But markets must be bent to serve moral and human ends; they are not sufficient ends in themselves. Humane working conditions, social justice, an inclusive and cohesive society, responsible stewardship of the environment and natural resources: these cannot be regarded as second order concerns, contingent on the iron laws of economics which are seen as primary. That approach leads to an unsustainable and unjust society. They are the first order concerns which economic activity should serve.

This is indeed the key underlying point of the recent Churches' ecumenical Enquiry into Unemployment and the Future of Work, chaired by Bishop David Sheppard. He would be the first to say that the Enquiry was very much a team effort, but I do want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to his remarkable ministry over 40 years, especially his passionate campaigning for justice for ordinary men and women.

The Enquiry's report argues vigorously that the future of work, and the dignity and opportunities it brings with it, is not something beyond our control, to be determined by abstract economic laws. They reject the fatalism which says that widespread unemployment is inevitable. The report says that if we choose to run the economy so that it creates more good jobs as a priority, we can do so.

I was very pleased to learn that the TUC General Council has welcomed this report warmly and agreed to work closely alongside the Churches in following it up, and I am delighted that you are devoting part of your time here to discussing the report after this morning's session. Some people may wish to argue that there are more important things than creating more good jobs. They may wish to argue that the merits of restraining taxation and restraining public spending are greater than the merits of further reducing unemployment. But please let no one pretend there is no choice in these matters because we are helpless before the laws of economics.

Thirdly, can it be said that we share a practical concern for justice and peace which goes wider than our own localities? Despite our faults, the answer is 'Yes'. I value the role of the TUC in bringing together such a huge range of interests and helping them to define and pursue their wider, common aims. The best of Christianity and the best of trade unionism share a radical antipathy to the prejudices which ruin human solidarity. We have often worked together closely against racism, and long may that continue. We worked long and hard together in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and I believe that historians will accord considerable importance to the international role of both trade unions and Churches in the eventual emergence of democracy and racial equality there. Moreover, we are each of us internationalists. The Gospel of Christ does not respect national frontiers; and mutual support and collective efforts to improve the lives of working people must also be global now that we live and work in a global economy. We may be patriots, but we cannot be exclusive nationalists.

Similarly, we both tend to be positive about being part of Europe, not at the expense of our national identity but in addition to it. There are tremendous bonds between different parts of Europe, not least because of the historical spread of Christianity right across the continent; and we each know from our own experience as institutions that there are many things in Europe which we can do better together than we can do by ourselves.

Indeed, I believe that Trade Unions and Churches still have a crucial role in struggles for justice worldwide. Endemic poverty, malnutrition and disease kill 15 million children every year in developing countries; child labour and modern forms of slavery deny tens of millions the opportunity to grow physically, culturally and spiritually as fully human beings; bans on freedom of association and the right to free expression in a wide range of countries load the dice against the achievement of justice, fellowship and co-operation.

I am greatly encouraged to see from your agenda that these are issues which you will discuss later this week and that the values of your Movement which owe so much to the Christian tradition are being applied in an outward-looking way which recognises the inter-dependence of the human family.

Finally, if we are honest, we need to ask ourselves another question. Do we not share the need to embrace quite far-reaching changes as organisations if our vitality and contemporary relevance is to be as we would wish? Members of the Churches' Enquiry into Unemployment and the Future of Work have mentioned that some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people among the unemployed did not see the relevance of the trade unions to the solution of their problems, and I am sure that most of them did not think the Churches had much to offer either. We each have to struggle to avoid getting too preoccupied with our institutional concerns and against being captured by our own bureaucratic traditions. We have to watch that we do not become instruments of vested interest rather than justice. We know that neither Churches nor trade unions own people's allegiance by right. We have to work for it. We have to listen to people, as they are, where they are - including young people. We both have to find ways of reaching out to them and earning their trust, and converting passive goodwill into active participation.

And if that means changing our methods and organisation - yes, we'll change. But that does not mean our core beliefs and principles change: they are for ever.

All that I have been saying could be summed up in the idea of the `good society'. And there is so much that is good about it. The public response to the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, shows that there are deep reservoirs of faith, hope, love and goodness in the people we serve and represent. Of course, I want to take this further still. At the heart of the Christian faith is a constant vision of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom values are love of God and of something bigger than ourselves; love of each and every neighbour made in the image of God; love of justice and peace. In this vision, people need each other; and loving and serving each other is what life is really all about. These are the ideas which have stirred the hearts of so many Christian pilgrims down the centuries. They have also nourished so many in the Labour Movement, whether they identify themselves as religious or not. These fundamental values do not change - must not change.

Let me close by quoting from a thinker whose views have inspired both the Churches and the Trade Union movement, R.H.Tawney. Quoting the Magnificat: `He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek', Tawney wrote: "A society which is fortunate enough to possess so revolutionary a basis, a society whose Founder was executed as the enemy of law and order, need not seek to soften the materialism of principalities and powers with mild doses of piety administered in an apologetic whisper. It will teach as having authority, and will have sufficient confidence in its faith to believe that it requires neither artificial protection nor judicious under-statement in order that such truth as there is in it may prevail."

Although Tawney was addressing the church in the first instance, perhaps that strong admonition applies to us both; to recognise the enduring strength of the ideals which have shaped us and which still have power to capture human hearts and shape the future.

So, although our organisations have quite different roles, and we shall always have plenty to criticise in each other, what we have in common goes deep. I am delighted to have had this opportunity to say so. Let us keep working together on the many causes that unite us. God bless you all.

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