German industrial unions are very different from the UAW as it is constituted in this country. The UAW is an organized mob of lesser-skilled individuals that rely more on their threat to continued profitable production than on any expertise they may bring to the factory floor, while the European unions first of all train craftsmen who specialize in producing a superior product, through an apprenticeship program, then firmly control how much this skilled craftsman may produce through complicated arrangements with the manufacturer, in exchange for a mutually-agreed-upon compensation. The European unions deliver a real and tangible advantage for the employer, not present in the negotiations between UAW and the manufacturers.
Sounds almost like advocacy for the social market economy.
I’m still driving a 30 year old Mercedes I bought for $100 ten years ago.
Yes, but keep in mind that it’s the German Union that’s trying to get the vote voided. I see three possibilities:
They are ignorant of the differences you describe
They are acting in collusion with the UAW due to some sort of off the books pact
They want the UAW in so that the factory can fail (as a previous unionized VW factory in the US did) and jobs will be brought home to Germany.
Personally, my moneys on the last option. Because inthink that German union leaders are smarter and more politically savvy than the brute force thugs who run the US unions.
At the end of the day, they’re both a monopoly of labor.
There are basically three types of Unions in the US: Public employees, trade Unions and worker Unions.
Most would agrees that Public Employee Unions do NOT offer any benefit for the employee or the employer, which is the citizen. All it does it funnel money to Democrats and enrich Union Bosses.
Next are trade Unions. I am not opposed to trade Unions, but I am opposed to some of the members attitude that jobs should automatically go to trade Union employees. My opinion is that a trade Union is a business and this business must compete for business. It must show "brand" advantage over non-union labor. I have lived in areas where you would not dare hire anyone that wasn't a Union Shop, but I have also been an areas where it did not make a difference or trade Labor was a negative.
Worker Unions must prove that they can help a company deliver superior quality and value in order to avoid extinction. But instead in the US, all they do is lobby legislators into compulsory union and little Davis Bacon laws. They only care about members is due payments and recruiting more members.
Then why do they need a monopoly contract? Let them simply compete and the market will determine what's needed.