This is great news for Alabama! No doubt production will have to be expanded at our Mercedes plants here to make up for the striking (perhaps soon to be fired) German workers. 12 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
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.
my point is that union labor is over-priced, and fueling the growth of asian manufacturing.
read economics.
Eurotrash flushing themselves.
Good.
Make your kids study Chinese AND business if you want them to take care of you in your old age.
right.
germany has a long-overdue surprise coming.
they get month-long vacations.
In a related comment less German women in thongs in Florida(that shouldn't be). Hate to admit I still have that image stuck in my brain from 5 plus years ago.
Hmmm.
"Interessen Gemeinschaft Metall" (Interests Common-Organization Metall) might actually be functioning now or very soon as Interessen Gemeinschaft Turkische.
Buy Lexus. Be happy.
Gotta love those unions - would rather loose all jobs than some jobs...DUH>.....
Typical socialists.
Those factory workers all wore suits and ties to work, and carried briefcases. They changed into overalls inside. Who did they think they were fooling?
This is great news for Alabama! No doubt production will have to be expanded at our Mercedes plants here to make up for the striking (perhaps soon to be fired) German workers. 12 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
I bought a new Ford in '90 and another '01 ~ neither have given me any problems and both are running great!
Fords forever!
I leased/bought my last Damalier Chrysler product in 1999- a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. What a piece of junk!
well, you get 15 minutes every four hours, dont you?
I dont think the Alabama Mercedes plant is a union plant, is it? Daimler-Chrysler is going to be moving more production outside of West Germany, where the wages are so high.
German unemployment benefits are also being reworked by Schroeder.....50% pay for unlimited amount of time. No wonder they have 15% unemployment!
Good point. Knowing this is Europe I assumed the 5 minute break per hour is on top of the usual 15 minute break per 4 hours.
They day dreamed that they were Fine German Engineers while assembling cars.
Many of the German/French Pharmaceutical companies have been moving research and production out of their socialist countries to America for years.
About 5 years ago, a VP of a company from both France and Germany explained that he could hire great chemists with proven track records for the same salary that an arrogant unproven socialist demanded in France or Germany. He could give better than average benefits and time off than most Americans got to his American employees. They appreciated generous vacation time and a week off at Christmas, where as the snot nosed euro socialists (his words),demanded more time off for everything.
He was German, and when he finished he asked his fellow VP a French Doctor, how he felt. The French Doctor said, "Oui!". Both men had relocated their families and applied for American citizenship.
This happened during a lunch with 5 of us who had been hired as consultants. We were stunned by how they felt. Now I know why they felt that way about the snot nosed Euro's who got great salaries and packages from their company and wanted more with less work.
I guess that in order to boost the local economy in my area we should require that all products consumed in the County be produced in the County? That would make us better off according to your idea of economics.
Year after year, Lexus is the best made car in the world. They know how to build cars.
"Year after year, Lexus is the best made car in the world. They know how to build cars."
I bought my wife a Lexus ES300 last August.
It is without a doubt the best driving, riding and safest car we have ever been in.
Her Sable blew the 4th radiator cooling system in 8 years before I bought her the Lexus.
My DIL has a 2000 Explorer that spends about as much down time as on the road time.
So after about 1 year with her Lexus, we are in total agreement with you. Zero recalls and zero problems!
I once managed a plant where we beat the Koreans and then the Chinese on price producing valves using American castings.
We raised gross manufacturing profit from 35% to 49% while simultaneously rasing wages 25%.
Everybody won, and nobody had to work for 20 cents an hour.
$0.20 is a living wage.
In what country does the average worker only make $.20?
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