VW may reconsider future in South
By Steve Benen
When employees at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., considered unionization, Republican officials – at the local, state, and national level – pulled out all the stops to prevent it. It was a multifaceted push, but GOP policymakers argued that killing unionization would offer a brighter future – for the plant, the workers, and the whole region.
The argument, dubious or not, worked and the plant workers rejected the opportunity to join the United Automobile Workers union. But in an ironic twist, instead of encouraging VW to do more in Tennessee and the South, it may do the exact opposite.
Volkswagen’s top labor representative threatened today to try to block further investments by the German carmaker in the U.S. South if its workers there are not unionized, Reuters reported today.
“I can imagine fairly well that another VW factory in the United States, provided that one more should still be set up there, does not necessarily have to be assigned to the South again,” said Bernd Osterloh, a member of VW’s powerful supervisory board and head of VW’s works council.
Osterloh, who is also on VW’s supervisory board, added, “If co-determination isn’t guaranteed in the first place, we as workers will hardly be able to vote in favor” of new production facilities in Southern American states.
That’s not exactly the outcome Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and his allies presented during the voting process last week.
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Some of the political coverage surrounding the vote characterized it as some kind of proxy fight, with the UAW on one side and Republicans on the other. But let’s not forget that Volkswagen itself didn’t have problem with unionization – Republicans didn’t intervene at the behest of the company; they intervened out of an anti-labor animus, despite the company’s wishes.
It wouldn’t come as too big a shock if top officials at VW noticed and came away unimpressed.
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/vw-may-reconsider-future-south
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Trade unions in Germany have a history reaching back to the German revolution in 1848, and still play an important role in the German economy and society. The most important labor organization is the German Confederation of Trade Unions (Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or DGB), which represents more than 6 million people (31 December 2011) and is the umbrella association of several single trade unions for special economic sectors.
The largest single trade union is the IG Metall with about 2,300,000 members by 2010, organizing employees in metal (including automobile and machine building), electronics, steel, textile, wood and synthetics industries.
. . . .
Employees' representation in Germany has a binary structure: trade unions that set the framework for working conditions, such as collective wage agreements, for whole sectors or single companies, defining wage levels and working time on the one hand - and works councils ("Betriebsräte"
that are elected by employees and represent their interests on company level. They shape and supervise the execution of the frameworks set by trade unions and laws in the company.
German industrial relations are characterized by a high degree of employee participation up to co-determination in companies' boards ("Aufsichtsrat" , where trade unionists and works councils elected by employees have full voting rights. Local trade union representants are democratically elected by union members and formally largely autonomous. Central boards of directors ("Vorstand" are elected by delegatees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_unions_in_Germany
Actually, workers organized and trained within their trades in the Middle Ages in Germany. The organizations were called guilds (English word). So I think the tradition goes way back beyond the German Revolutin of 1848.
As is shown here, up to 2000, Germany and Austria were known for having labor harmony with very few strikes -- fewer than other European Union countries.
http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1193750.PDF
The Guardian reports that the German trade union movement is changing.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/31/germany-trade-unions-model-disaster
But, large German employers thrive and compete favorably with companies and employers in other countries partly because their labor laws and traditions make it possible for workers and their employers to work together and solve their problems together.
The US could learn a lot from German labor law and German labor relations traditions.
