Dadoalex
Gold Member
- Jan 11, 2021
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You're not speaking of making unions "redundant," you're simply describing a different form of the same animal.There are various reasons for the cutthroat nature of business here, but one aspect rarely discussed is that Germany (and the EU as a whole) operates as a cartel. They limit who is able to enter their market. This allows for some protection of industry there. We engage in similar tactics, but not to the same extent.Management and Labor should be hand in glove partners. After all, they share a common goal. The success of the company.Worker councils are organized by the management of the company. So, it would require the consent of management. I realize that work culture is very different in the US as compared with Germany, which is why Walmart would oppose something like this. A lot of corporate culture in America overall is ironically woke on social issues but not exactly worker-friendly on economic issues. It shows just how disingenuous their virtue signaling is. It's like how Nike supports BLM but profits off of Uyghur slave labor.I'm willing to listen to ideas of making unions more responsive to their workers needs and I'm not that familiar with German labor law but have such a meeting at wal mart and they will fire every worker and close the store. They've done it which is why we need laws supporting unions at the federal level.I have a better idea. Encourage companies to form their own worker councils like a lot of German companies have. Germany doesn't bother with unions usually, because these worker councils are essentially internal unions, which function far better than our typical unions. The reason for this is that an internal body has a vested interest in efficiency, whereas an outside body has a vested interest in just maximizing its fees and revenue.
Not every company is run by assholes though.
Again, I can't speak for Germany but the attitude from management in this country has traditionally been "give as little as you can."
Conversely, when unions organized they approached the effort with "get as much as we can."
The battle lines were set. Greed, not the success of the company, would drive every aspect of the relationship.
But if the sides could approach the relationship as partners rather than enemies then both would benefit.
Germany also has a far superior education system that divides children by academic and technical talents. They don't have a shortage of blue collar labor, for example.
If we reformed our education system to resemble theirs, it would then allow us to push a corporate culture that would be more democratic in nature. That would make unions redundant, because labor reforms would be internal.
Germany, in general, is not a good example. Two world wars and and the privation following both made sociological changes within German unseen elsewhere.
Useful, perhaps as a case study, but not as a direct comparison.