Word: mitbestimmung
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Despite these concerns, there is sound precedent for giving an auto-union leader a seat at the director's table. In West Germany, union officials for years have had a role in determining corporate decisions under a system called Mitbestimmung, or codetermination. Under this arrangement, West German union representatives in 1976 agreed to Volkswagen's decision to build assembly plants in the U.S. after they were convinced it would ensure the firm's survival and their own jobs in the long run, even though it meant limited union jobs at home. Says VW Chairman Toni Schmucker...
...more and more workers and bosses, Mitbestimmung is the better way. Some illustrations of its progress...
There are some indications that Mitbestimmung can indeed work that way. During a decline in the West German coal industry that cost 400,000 miners their jobs between 1957 and 1973, management and workers consulted closely on mine closings and programs for re-employment, retraining and early retirement of employees. Result: the shrinkage was accomplished with no major labor disputes. Mitbestimmung, says Karl-Heinz Briam, labor representative on the board of Krupp's steel operation, "is something like marriage with no divorce possible...
...that very reason, Mitbestimmung is viewed with hostility by Communist-and socialist-dominated unions in France and Italy, who want no marriage between workers and capitalists. In Italy, where unions are among the most radical in Europe, an experiment by the giant automaker Fiat to involve workers in production plans and manpower organization appears to be in deep trouble after only six months. Says Socialist Piero Boni, a leader of Italy's largest trade-union confederation: "Today, this is not the right way for Italy. Here we have to go on strike." In Britain, unions want more than...
...France, BSN, a giant glass company, has a committee of 30 workers (representing 14,000) who meet once a month with management to discuss a broad range of subjects: more flexible working hours, altering certain retirement plans. At the Renault auto company, Mitbestimmung translates as "job enrichment": Renault workers select components and assemble them at their own pace, cutting one to two hours off the previous assembly time...