page_title: Boutros el-Khoury
section_title: Contribution to social dialogue
hierarchical_section_title: Boutros el-Khoury / Business career / Contribution to social dialogue
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Conferance de presse de l'Association des Industriels
context_page_description: Sheikh Boutros el-Khoury was a Lebanese businessman, banker and industrialist. A successful self-made man, Khoury managed to build a large commercial and industrial empire, and was one of Lebanon's most well-established businessmen from the 1950s to the 1970s. Khoury was an important figure of the Lebanese ruling elite in the second half of the 20th century. He played a decisive role in the development of economic legislation, and used his expertise in the resolution of several major national crises.
context_section_description: Khoury's role in the Lebanese business world gave him a decisive voice in the dialogue that emerged between trade unionists and managers in the second half of the 1960s. As a representative of the industrialists, he was commonly invited by the ruling class to participate in the settlement of social crises. While usually chosen to represent the employers in these discussions, Khoury often adopted a conciliatory position, reflecting his role as a mediator in both politics and business.
  On the question of wage increases in the private sector, demanded by unions as early as November 1964, Khoury welcomed the adoption in January 1965 of the wage increase law, which in his opinion guaranteed continued cooperation between employers and workers, as well as increasing living standards.
  Khoury was also committed to improving worker productivity, providing funds for vocational training and collaborating with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on the modernization of the Dekwaneh accelerated vocational training center.
  Khoury's conciliatory tendencies did not outweigh his economic liberalism, however, and while he was sensitive to worker well-being, he believed that the state should also work in the interests of employers in order to improve the whole economic sector. He remained a proponent of free trade, which also led him to defend the interests of industrialists and capitalists. During the fruit crisis of June 1966, he condemned the measures of the Union of Farmers—defended by Kamal Jumblatt and the leftist parties—as an attempt to nationalize the fruit industry.
caption: Boutros el-Khoury at the press conference of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.
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