Newsletter No. 26
JANUARY 2005
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German Nestle workers protect work week as EU dithers When workers at Nestle’s Maggi factory in Singen, Germany managed to retain their 37-hour week in gaining a new collective agreement, it was considered a great success at a time when major German employers are demanding unpaid hours across a number of sectors (Successful strike at Nestle Germany .. defends work week 24.9.04 http://www.iuf.org/). To get their new deal — which includes a 2-3 year job guarantee and a 2 per cent wage rise, but gives up 20 minutes of breaks and some bonuses — the Singen workers, members of the German Food & Allied Workers Union, struck for a week and threatened to strike indefinitely. The International Union of food Workers (IUF) organized international solidarity with other Nestle workers. It got other factories to refuse to cover production shortfalls in the Singen plant. A lot is at stake in European workers’ efforts to hold the line on hours & conditions. Globalised financial markets mean globalised shareholders demand increased profits. This drives European Union employers and governments to erode traditional industrial frameworks and welfare nets (‘social wages’). Vast reserves of non-union labour in Russia and Central Europe are available for exploitation and China is now effectively integrated into the global production circuits. This permits aggressive attacks on union power where it is strongest. German employers want to axe ‘co-determination’, once the hall-mark of an enlightened Germany, in which workers participated in their firms’ management (‘Chill enters cosy German boardrooms’ Guardian 25.10.04); and EU employment Ministers prepare to make the 48-hour work week maximum ‘more flexible’. The main bone of contention is over how strictly they should interpret the rules and whether there should be an “opt out” clause to allow even longer hours (EU Governments fail to reach workweek deal’ 8.12.04 AP). Advocates of the “opt out” and loose interpretation warn that strict compliance with the 48-hour rule means ‘having to hire tens of thousands of workers’ Hasn’t that always been the argument for a shorter work week? It creates more employment? |