Bertylicious said:
RoonMian said:
I live in a country and I'm going to work in a field of master labour contracts (I hope I translated the term "Manteltarifvertrag" bzw. "Flächentarifvertrag" correctly) so after taking an educated guess what wage bracket I'm in you pretty much already know the terms of my employment. Just like anybody else's in most industrial and big services sectors here in Germany.
Actually I know very little about any employment practices outside of the UK and would be particularly interested to learn more about the German model. I wouldn't ask about your own personal situation, that would be most intrusive, but I would be very grateful if you could expand on how things are done in Germany.
I can't really talk about "the German model" as I don't know if such a thing actually exists and if it does I don't know jack about it.
I'm on my way to become a bachelor of automotive engineering (FH) and I am a member in the Industrie-Gewerkschaft Metall so what I know about stuff here is mainly seen through IG Metall glasses. I'm a bit biased there, I'm a convinced member myself, my father is ombudsman and my uncle is a high functionary.
The IG Metall (industry labour union metal) exists in its present shape since 1949 and is pretty much the largest labour union in the world, far more than 2 million members and it covers the huge automobile sector in Germany, machinery manufacturing, electric manufacturing, wood manufacturing, plastic manufacturing, textile manufacturing, IT and communications. It has a war chest billions of Euros deep and it's a major political force to reckon with showing engagement in lots of fields like anti-fascism, tolerance, equality, feminism etc. Together with other strong German labour unions like Ver.Di for the service sector, IG Bau for construction, IG Chemie for chemical and pharma it forms the DGB, the German labour union Federation.
You see, labour unions have a strong tradition in Germany for almot 150 years now (Bismarck made all his famous social reforms actually to combat them, taking the wind out of their sails because he was so reactionary. Luckily he failed.) and they established themselves as a vital part of society and one of the main venues with which ordinary people can influence the economic landscape of Germany outside of political elections (which sometimes convey very little feeling of influence). Actually, unions lobbied for a law that regulates how employees can influence the course of a corporation in the first place. Also laws about workplace safety, equal pay, employee protection, anti-discrimination, the list goes on and on.
While the German system is far from perfect I'm very grateful for it being there because here labour unions mainly act as a counterweight to short term focused corporate interests (shareholder value and all that crap) with their main goal being sustainability first and huge advantages for the employees second (unlike for example the very strong unions in France who are much more belligerent). For example one of the reasons why German manufacturing managed to come out so well out of the global financial crisis was unions, mainly the IG Metall, toning down their interests for the greater good, like cutting their demands for higher wages and playing a major part in the German system of short-time working. Another example is that usually labour unions demand a raise in wages when a new master contract is negotiated that equals the inflation plus the raise in productivity. But the IG Metall every year is more than ready to lower their demands in wages in exchange for employers guaranteeing jobs and guaranteeing to create more jobs. You could say that unions as a whole, as a collective of unions, don't just look out for their members but for society as a whole.
Of course there are also downsides. For example when very small, specialised unions like the union of train conductors (GdL), pilots (Cockpit), physicians (Marburger Bund) etc. go rogue and pretty much shut down whole aspects of public life it gets sticky. Especially, if like in the case of the GdL (my mom works in the German cargo railway company) it's not actually about the good of the workers or the justice among the employees, but about the personal careers of a few people in charge.
Basically, what happens is that every year the unions and the employers meet and decide together what's going to happen in regards to wages, creation or rationalising of jobs etc. How they do that I touched on earlier but mainly what unions want is more money for employees as their productivity rises year after year and to balance inflation so that at the bottom line your hands' work stays at the same value relatively speaking. They're also interested in keeping people in employment in general and keeping sustainable, keeping quality high, keeping factories profitable in the long run etc. For example, the IG Metall here in Germany right now has been fighting tooth and nail with General Motors about keeping two large automobile factories (and everything that relates to that) open here in Germany since the financial crisis because of GM's mismanagement in the first place. I'm sure you've noticed that whole struggle GM has with it's European brands Vauxhall, Opel and Saab (R.I.P.).
If employers don't move in the negotiations (as capitalists are wont to do) then Unions can go on strike to enforce their demands. Striking though is actually heavily regulated in Germany. A strike has to be democratically elected inside the union by law (Urabstimmung), there are circumstances where strikes or forceful behaviour by employers are temporary or absolutely forbidden (Friedenspflicht, "duty of peace") and political strikes like general strikes are generally prohibited in Germany. Also unions need lots of money because while on strike they pay your salary, not your employer, logically.
Negotiations aren't only held on such big levels like whole unions negotiating with whole industry sectors but there is also a system of co-determination between work councils and single companies. It's also heavily regulated there what each side is allowed to do to ensure a balance between the interests of employers and employees. For example if you have 5 employees those employees have the right to elect one work councillor who then enjoys special protection (you can't just fire a work councillor for example if he has the audacity to criticise you using a whip to motivate your workers).
Damn, this turned out to be one wall of text and I think I edited it a dozen times... Errrh... TL;DR: Just try to remember every horror story you've heard from the USA about how employees are treated there then the reason stuff like that does not happen in Germany (if it actually doesn't) is because of the very strong unions.
