That 5 hours is seriously going to ruin their leisure time.
Posted on 07/08/2004 8:14:47 PM PDT by ijcr
In the end the decision the workers had to make was elementary: extend your working week from 35 to 40 hours for no extra pay or your job goes to Hungary.
"Our employers were sly," said Michael Stahl, 42, who has worked as a technician at the Bocholt plant of Siemens, the German electrical engineering firm, since 1977. "They already had the land for the new factory in Hungary when they approached us. Effectively they blackmailed us."
Siemens has created a huge stir across Germany over the past couple of weeks by successfully deploying arguments about the impact of globalisation, coupled with fears generated by the ailing German economy, to discard the treasured 35-hour week at two plants in the Ruhr valley employing 8,000 people.
The decision is expected to save Siemens 10 to 15 per cent in labour costs.
Developments are being closely monitored in France, where the 35-hour week is also under threat.
What is seen as an enviable luxury by workers elsewhere in Europe and America has become, since its introduction 20 years ago, a potent symbol of Germans' hard-earned post-war affluence, and something which unions have fiercely protected.
"It is very painful," said Heinz Cholewa, head of the Bocholt branch of the engineering trade union IG Metall, who spent months negotiating with Siemens bosses.
"What we took years fighting blood, sweat and tears for has apparently been lost with the blink of an eye and we're now pedalling backwards."
Much as Siemens chiefs publicly insist that they do not want the "Bocholt model" to become a template for the rest of German industry, hundreds of companies already appear to be following suit.
DaimlerChrysler, Continental, Thomas Cook and the German railways, Deutsche Bahn, are among firms that have already announced proposals for their workers to put in extra time for the same pay - for the first time since the Second World War.
Supporters of tougher working regimes say this is the only way forward for a country with unemployment at 10.3 per cent, growth the lowest in Europe for the best part of a decade and jobs fast disappearing abroad.
Workers in the new European Union member states are more than 80 per cent cheaper than their German counterparts, the costliest in the world after the Norwegians. Faced with such fierce competition, Germany desperately needs to rediscover its celebrated work ethic.
Public opinion is slowly changing. A poll in Spiegel magazine found that 79 per cent of Germans - 63 per cent of them union members - would be prepared to work longer for the same money to save their jobs.
But the changes may not end with the loss of the 35-hour week. Industry chiefs and politicians now want workers' holidays reduced.
Despite their hard-working image, Germans spend only 13 per cent of their lives in paid employment, averaging a world record 42 days off a year.
Michael Rogowski, president of the Union of German Industry, who has already said it would not be "unreasonable" to work a 50-hour week, called yesterday for seven days to be cut from the statutory holiday allowance to help the economy.
At the Bocholt plant, which produces 40,000 cordless telephones a day, workers are coming to terms with the loss of holidays and Christmas bonuses on top of having to work longer.
Mr Stahl, the worker representative at Bocholt, believes the employers' approach is self-defeating.
"The government wants workers to boost consumer spending, but how can I contribute to anything when I have to consider for the first time whether I can take my family on holiday and whether I can afford that cut of meat?"
They're lazy. As are most european nations.
My sympathies to those workers being squeezed.
Poor babies have to work 40 hours a week now...waaaaaahhhhh!
slavery knows no boundaries
is Stahl the German Greg Packer???
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/business/worldbusiness/07WORK.html?pagewanted=print&position=
42 day holidays...Waaaah!
Oh the irony of a union rep saying this...
Working 35, 40 or even 50 hours a week...I would feel like I was on permanent vacation from my 70-80 hour weeks.
Lots of vacation time, apparently no child labor laws.
It is difficult to see how the increase in the work week would affect Germany10% unemployment rate. It could (to some extent) stem further job losses, but how would it produce new jobs?
That 5 hours is seriously going to ruin their leisure time.
I couldn't agree more...as I log off to get my 5-6 hrs sleep to get ready for a 15 hour work day today.
I worked at an electronics manufacturing plant a few years ago as an electrical engineer. One day our purchasing agent asked me if I could spec a new transformer for one of our products. Seems that the one we were using came from Germany and the purchasing agent couldn't buy any for an entire month and we were out of stock. "What happened?" I asked, "Did the factory go on strike? Did they run out of raw materials and couldn't build them? Did the workers go on strike?" No, the reason we couldn't get parts from Germany was because the entire g-d factory was on vacation for the entire frickin' month!!
And, yes, I did spec in a new transformer--an American-made transformer.
With Germany is the territory that pulls the weight of the EU economy, most of the other territorys are siphoning off the value of the Euro. Instead of the other 35 hour work week places having to work harder, they all pile on Germany.
Now France can have an extra week off this year. How special.
Dont get me wrong, as I am adamantly opposed to employees setting the terms for employment...
But I must ask, do you work for a living or do you live live to work?
Work is what I "do" to finance my personal life.
I work hard for the money, but my emplyoyer does not own me, my employer merely buys my time and skills and churns them for a profit.
You think that's bad? Here's a lesson in market economics. My position went from 12/hours day to 24 hours/ day with NO pay increase, because they said "Well, you're sleeping 8 of that." Yes, but I was at their job site, all 24 hours. "Eat whatever you want." Gee thanks...you have nothing here I would buy. I had no freedom to come or go. I still had to keep an apartment,with the utilities, because each job could end suddenly and I'd need a place. But one short-term job like this on top of another, and it became full time, 168 hours a week, at the SAME pay as 84 hours a week. Cheap labor came in, offering to do this, so suddenly everyone in the market was aware they could double the hours for the same pay. I could technically say "No," but they'd stop offering the positions, and I'd have no work, because someone wouldn't mind that pay. I of course was too stupid to figure a way out for years. ewwww...gives me the creeps just remembering it!!
----You think that's bad? Here's a lesson in market economics. My position went from 12/hours day to 24 hours/ day with NO pay increase, because they said "Well, you're sleeping 8 of that." Yes, but I was at their job site, all 24 hours. "Eat whatever you want." Gee thanks...you have nothing here I would buy. I had no freedom to come or go. -----
Gee - I thought you were heading towards a joke about being a stay-at-home Mom (or Dad).
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