Posted on 07/15/2004 10:13:36 AM PDT by ijcr
Tens of thousands of employees of German-U.S. car giant DaimlerChrysler are expected to down tools Thursday in a day of protest against management's cost-cutting plans.
Germany's largest industrial labor union, IG Metall, called for a concerted day of action against what it says are unacceptable measures to cut costs at one of the country's biggest corporations.
Some 600 workers at a Mercedes plant in Düsseldorf kicked off the action with an overnight demonstration by torchlight through the city streets.
At DaimlerChrysler's main site in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart in southern Germany, around 20,00 employees answered the call to strike and stopped work for two hours earlier in the morning.
Further stoppages have been staged at car and truck factories throughout the country during the course of the day, notably in Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, said IG Metall and the employee's council.
The carmaker employs around 160,000 people in Germany and some reports suggest that as much as half the workforce could join in the protests.
The strikes at all the German Mercedes factories are a direct response to DaimlerChrysler's threats to shift production of its new Mercedes C-Class sedan away from Sindelfingen to South Africa if unions do not agree to €500 million ($615 million) in personnel cost costs. Such a move could result in the loss of 6,000 jobs in Sindelfingen.
IG Metall slammed the threat as "blackmail" and vowed to fight the company's plans.
Protestors in Sindelfingen, a factory which employs close to 30,000 people, rallied around the union and displayed signs crying out, "it's war."
The head of the employee's council in Sindelfingen, Erich Klemm, said the union was willing to offer pay reductions up to €180 million, but not management's "outrageous" demands for half a billion in reductions.
A climate of fear
DaimlerChrysler has also threatened to move some jobs from Sindelfingen to Bremen, where production costs are lower, and to change contracts to eliminate extra pay for late shifts and five-minute breaks on every hour, effectively leading to an increase of the work week without more pay.
"Such proposals make me sick," said Klemm, who vowed that all the Mercedes factories would stick together in a show of solidarity.
The president of Germany's parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, lashed out at DaimlerChrysler management for "creating a climate of fear."
"It's repulsive to exert pressure on employees by making ultimatums," he told the daily Tagesspiegel on Thursday.
The Mercedes I owned was the biggest piece of crap EVER.
Never again.
I could be mistaken but here in the USA DaimlerChrysler is down for retooling or will be in the next week or so.
Well, I suppose the unions could oppose the cost-cutting moves by the company, and without the cost-cutting then next year they can lose twice as many jobs.
Their choice, I guess.
its globalism at its most stupid. these first world workers are starting to realize that they cannot compete with foreign labor, that their wages will plummet or they will lose their jobs all together.
Oddly enough, there is no German word for "outsourcing".
Perhaps we should create one, as it sounds like they are about to find out what it is.
Perhaps
Auslandarbeitsenden
Yeah. With Thabo Mbeki in office, South Africa is a much more business friendly nation. </sarcasm>
Ping, LOL!
michael moore is angry that his father lost his union gm job.
i'd suggest to him that unions are the cause of manufacturing moving over seas.
china will appreciate this latest union stupidity.
Sure there is....."Koncentrationkampslavelabor"
LOL!
German is so great for compound words!
Or how about "Stayenhomenwatchenturks"?
LOL!
German is so great for compound words!
Or how about "Stayenhomenwatchenturks"?
Time to buy more Toyota Stock.
My wife's Lexus has had zero problems. Two of her friends with new Mercedes have their German POS in the shop on a regular basis.
"eliminate extra pay for late shifts and five-minute breaks on every hour"
Do UAW members get these benefits?
i'd suggest to him that unions are the cause of manufacturing moving over seas.
I disagree. Labor costs are no doubt a large part of it, but not unions. Union or not, you can't compete with .20 cent/hr labor. You can't work for that, can you?
OUCH!
In the recent JP Powrers survey Mercedes ranked among the most unreliable cars with over 300 problems per 100 cars.
Not in germany they still have buggy whip manufacturers receiving government largess.
LOL...
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