Jimmie Higgins
26th May 2011, 17:37
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-meyerson-europeans-20110515,0,3990894.story
Just a little ammunition for when American RevLefters argue with US conservatives about unionization or how great capitalism is for US workers or that we need less regulation and labor unions etc.
As a report released by Human Rights Watch (http://www.latimes.com/topic/social-issues/human-rights/human-rights-watch-ORNPR00003940.topic) late last year documents, companies that routinely welcome unions, pay middle-class wages and have workers' representatives on their corporate boards in Germany (http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/germany-PLGEO000003.topic) and Scandinavia have threatened their U.S.-based employees with permanent replacement by other workers as the penalty for protesting wage cuts (that was the German manufacturer Robert Bosch), ordered workers to report on fellow workers' pro-union activities (that was T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom (http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/deutsche-telekom-ag-ORCRP004481.topic)) and disciplined workers who couldn't show up for unscheduled weekend shifts announced on Friday night (that was IKEA, according to an L.A. Times story).
In Germany, Robert Bosch, according to Human Rights Watch, has never threatened a single worker with losing his job for protesting wage cuts, and Deutsche Telekom repeatedly touts its "social partnership" with its union. In Sweden (http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/sweden-PLGEO00000616.topic), IKEA, like the vast majority of Swedish companies, is unionized and affords its workers a range of rights and benefits that are all but unimaginable to American retail workers.
German manufacturing workers, making the world's most sophisticated products and machinery, earn on average $1.50 for every dollar that American manufacturing workers make. (Despite that, because it's German policy to foster high-end manufacturing and highly skilled labor, Germany also has a huge trade surplus, while we have a mammoth trade deficit). In the new global pecking order, the decline of American unions and the steady downward mobility of American workers are making us the destination of choice when European companies want to get the job done on the cheap.
Just a little ammunition for when American RevLefters argue with US conservatives about unionization or how great capitalism is for US workers or that we need less regulation and labor unions etc.
As a report released by Human Rights Watch (http://www.latimes.com/topic/social-issues/human-rights/human-rights-watch-ORNPR00003940.topic) late last year documents, companies that routinely welcome unions, pay middle-class wages and have workers' representatives on their corporate boards in Germany (http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/germany-PLGEO000003.topic) and Scandinavia have threatened their U.S.-based employees with permanent replacement by other workers as the penalty for protesting wage cuts (that was the German manufacturer Robert Bosch), ordered workers to report on fellow workers' pro-union activities (that was T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom (http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/deutsche-telekom-ag-ORCRP004481.topic)) and disciplined workers who couldn't show up for unscheduled weekend shifts announced on Friday night (that was IKEA, according to an L.A. Times story).
In Germany, Robert Bosch, according to Human Rights Watch, has never threatened a single worker with losing his job for protesting wage cuts, and Deutsche Telekom repeatedly touts its "social partnership" with its union. In Sweden (http://www.latimes.com/topic/intl/sweden-PLGEO00000616.topic), IKEA, like the vast majority of Swedish companies, is unionized and affords its workers a range of rights and benefits that are all but unimaginable to American retail workers.
German manufacturing workers, making the world's most sophisticated products and machinery, earn on average $1.50 for every dollar that American manufacturing workers make. (Despite that, because it's German policy to foster high-end manufacturing and highly skilled labor, Germany also has a huge trade surplus, while we have a mammoth trade deficit). In the new global pecking order, the decline of American unions and the steady downward mobility of American workers are making us the destination of choice when European companies want to get the job done on the cheap.