Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Monday, December 26, 2011

Germans Know Something Walker Does Not

That something is that the unions are not the enemy:
There are “two overlapping sets of institutions” in Germany that guarantee high wages and good working conditions for autoworkers. The first is IG Metall, the country’s equivalent of the United Automobile Workers. Virtually all Germany’s car workers are members, and though they have the right to strike, they “hardly use it, because there is an elaborate system of conflict resolution that regularly is used to come to some sort of compromise that is acceptable to all parties,” according to Horst Mund, an IG Metall executive. The second institution is the German constitution, which allows for “works councils” in every factory, where management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions and work life. Mund says this guarantees cooperation, “where you don’t always wear your management pin or your union pin.”
But then again, Walker isn't interested in what's best for the state, just what's the most profitable for his campaign donors.