All work and no play makes Johann a dull boy
According to this NYT piece, Europeans are on the slippery slope to an American (over)work ethic. Hours are increasing as pay and vacation time decrease.
"We have created a leisure society, while the Americans have created a work society," said Klaus F. Zimmermann, the president of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. "But our model does not work anymore. We are in the process of rethinking it."
And why exactly doesn't it work anymore?
"It's about lowering labor costs," said Peter Gottal, a spokesman for Siemens, which is based in Munich. "Where we are in a global competition, 35 hours are no longer feasible. We just need more hours."
The article says that Siemens is using the threat of relocation to low-wage Hungary as leverage to force concessions from their German workers. Welcome to Fortress Europe, which Naomi Klein and others have written about. The eastward expansion of the European Union brings poorer, low-wage countries like Hungary and Poland into the European fold so that their labor pools may be more easily accessed by big businesses, and, most importantly, used as a bargaining chip with well-paid, unionized workers in Western Europe. (There's also a racial component: with plenty of available white workers in the former Bloc countries to take on jobs throughout Europe, there's less of a need to allow dark-skinned immigrants, particularly North Africans, into the subcontinent to fill menial roles. Check out the Klein piece for more details.)
In the brave new (or, more likely, not very new) world of globalized hyper-capitalism, the ownership is calling the shots. This is not a democratic, grassroots-driven movement. Clearly union power and socialist traditions in Europe have succeeded in holding off rampant Reaganite free trade for longer there than in other places, but as this article illustrates, when Siemens decides that it's gotta do what it's gotta do to stay on the hamster wheel, that's it, done deal. There are plenty of unemployed Hungarians who would be happy to take jobs for less money than their German counterparts. And then Siemens will be praised by the status quo globalizers for providing jobs in a less fortunate country.
But before the Hungarian populace can say "blossoming middle class," Siemens will have discovered that it's a big world out there with LOTS and LOTS of poor people. And 40 hours a week in Hungary just won't cut it anymore.
"We have created a leisure society, while the Americans have created a work society," said Klaus F. Zimmermann, the president of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. "But our model does not work anymore. We are in the process of rethinking it."
And why exactly doesn't it work anymore?
"It's about lowering labor costs," said Peter Gottal, a spokesman for Siemens, which is based in Munich. "Where we are in a global competition, 35 hours are no longer feasible. We just need more hours."
The article says that Siemens is using the threat of relocation to low-wage Hungary as leverage to force concessions from their German workers. Welcome to Fortress Europe, which Naomi Klein and others have written about. The eastward expansion of the European Union brings poorer, low-wage countries like Hungary and Poland into the European fold so that their labor pools may be more easily accessed by big businesses, and, most importantly, used as a bargaining chip with well-paid, unionized workers in Western Europe. (There's also a racial component: with plenty of available white workers in the former Bloc countries to take on jobs throughout Europe, there's less of a need to allow dark-skinned immigrants, particularly North Africans, into the subcontinent to fill menial roles. Check out the Klein piece for more details.)
In the brave new (or, more likely, not very new) world of globalized hyper-capitalism, the ownership is calling the shots. This is not a democratic, grassroots-driven movement. Clearly union power and socialist traditions in Europe have succeeded in holding off rampant Reaganite free trade for longer there than in other places, but as this article illustrates, when Siemens decides that it's gotta do what it's gotta do to stay on the hamster wheel, that's it, done deal. There are plenty of unemployed Hungarians who would be happy to take jobs for less money than their German counterparts. And then Siemens will be praised by the status quo globalizers for providing jobs in a less fortunate country.
But before the Hungarian populace can say "blossoming middle class," Siemens will have discovered that it's a big world out there with LOTS and LOTS of poor people. And 40 hours a week in Hungary just won't cut it anymore.
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