At 11:48 AM 5/20/98 -0400, Tom Kruse wrote: >>From: Harry Kelber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Subject: LaborTalk: Unions View Auto Merger >> >>LaborTalk: Unions View Auto Merger >>By Harry Kelber -- snip >>The big question for the auto unions here and in Germany is whether >>the company will try to meld wages, hours, benefits and working >>conditions to cover all employees or whether it will pursue a two- >>track negotiating strategy, seeking separate contracts with UAW and >>I.G. Metall. -- snip -- I am attaching an excerpt from a discussion on the same subject on another list. WS encl: > > Second, what is Daimler's record toward their factory workers? My understanding > is that German workers have much better working conditions and benefits, > including a 36-hour week and roughly one month annual vacation. If so, will > American workers actually be better off under Daimler-Benz? Yes, this is true. However, German companies are no better than others when investing overseas. It might be interesting, if you have access to the data, to compare Volkswagen's German employment policy with that it follows in Mexico or Brazil. When my former employer, GPT, became partially owned by Siemens in 1991, initial worker reactions were favourable, but the company sacked some 2,000 workers (me included) over the next couple of years. I think that the tendency is for any company to get away with as much as it can in a particular employment market. Thus, for example, Nissan may have a company union in Japan, a tame "sweetheart" deal with the AEEU in this country, and a non-union policy in the USA. The special prize should maybe go to the Korean company which opened a plant in South Wales because it could pay lower waged than back home! Alan Harrison
