Ethical Considerations of Tru-seal

From an ethical perspective, the Tru-seal scenario provides a great deal of questions to be answered. Having been in the village for nearly 100 years, Tru-seal had built up a good reputation, the company being a fairly stable provider of jobs and working to limit its carbon footprint. However, with the pending deal with the Ford Motor Company and sale to the company from India, as well as the environmental issues, the company's leadership has several difficult decisions to make.

1. As the president of Tru-seal, prioritizing these ethical issues would be very difficult, as each has a great effect on a large group. The first issue that I would address would be whether or not to inform the union of the pending sale. When looking at this issue, I would need to decide the consequences of such a decision, how it would affect all the employees and how it might affect both the deal with Ford and the Indian company. Despite having such a tenuous history with the union, it may be deemed important that its members have a complete understanding of how decisions are made, which could lead to mutual understanding. However, in telling the union, it could cause an uprising and further increase the divide between the union and company leadership. This could lead to negative public sentiment and the loss of both the Ford and Indian company deal. In staying with the employment theme, next it would be important to decide whether or not to increase the number of jobs, even if those positions would be dissolved after two years. What would be important to consider here is the degree to which having those jobs would affect the village and the company. The question of whether or not the company has a duty to the village to provide these jobs, as from a u...

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... ensure that the best decisions is being made.

I did not feel as though it was ethically right to not involve the union a decision of this magnitude. I hope that rather than continuing the scorn and displeasure we have show one another over the last four years, we will be able to come together and solve this problem. Let me be clear, this does not mean that Tru-seal will not be sold and moving overseas in the near future. What it does mean, is that we are willing to work on trying to stay in Jones County, working with the union in order to keep jobs in the U.S. Over the next two years, we will evaluate how the company as a whole is operating. If it is at all possible to stay, we will try to the best of our ability to make it work."

- John Jay Patterson

President, Tru-seal Company

References:

1. DeGeorge, R. T. (2010). Business Ethics. Pearson. (pgs 44, 45, 100)