Elon vs IG Metall Union - Who will win?

[TruckElectric]

If IG Metall wins that may open the door for UAW to organize at Tesla plants in the U.S.

Giga Austin may very well be unionized. Strikes, shutdowns, slowdowns are on the horizon. Elon will go absolutely MAD!!



Tesla’s effort to build a new Gigafactory near Berlin has had a few hiccups, but it seems to be going smoothly overall.

However, it looks like the automaker might have to battle with IG Metall, a powerful union in Germany.

Elon Musk came to Berlin earlier this week and got showered with compliments by German leaders when receiving an Axel Springer award.

Tesla’s CEO appears to have been successfully charming Germany ever since announcing that Tesla will build a massive factory near Berlin.

However, there’s one group of people that Musk hasn’t charmed and that is IG Metall, a powerful union in the auto industry in Germany.

They have over 2 million members and they have a lot of weight with every automaker in Germany.

Years ago, when Tesla entered Germany more seriously with the acquisition of a large engineering firm, they ran into a unionization effort, but they managed to avoid IG Metall getting into its German operations by offering a salary increase to its employees and stock options.

Last month, we got our first hint that Tesla might run into another effort to unionize in Germany after the automaker hired the former head of a Mercedes-Benz factory and IG Metall got weirdly mad about it.

Now as Tesla is starting to ramp up its hiring effort for Ggiafactory Berlin, we’ve learned that IG Metall has been reaching out to Tesla about the collective regulation of wages and working conditions, but Tesla hasn’t responded, according to the union.

Birgit Dietze, District Manager for IG Metall in Berlin-Brandenburg-Sachsen, commented (via Sifted):

“We are in touch with our sister organisations at other Tesla facilities, so we are fully aware of personal allegations, as well as legal accusations and litigations against Tesla. We could take that as a hint as to what to expect of Tesla in Grünheide.”

Unions in Germany are different than in the US, but Tesla already has experienced fighting unionization efforts in North America, where The United Auto Worker union has been trying to unionize Tesla’s Fremont factory workers.

In fighting those efforts, Tesla has been accused of breaking labor laws.

The automaker has argued that Tesla employees are better off without a union since they believe that they have an organization that sets up its employees for success and everyone is offered stock options – making them part owners in the venture.

SOURCE: ELECTREK

 

[97trophy]

My money is on IG Metall. It's not a matter of Musk vs the Union, it's a matter of Musk versus German culture that dates back over a century.

Good luck to Musk and I hope to be wrong.

 

[TruckElectric]

German union IG Metall backs four-day week to save jobs

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s largest trade union, IG Metall, on Saturday proposed negotiating for a move to a four-day week to help secure jobs against economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis and structural shifts in the automobile industry.

IG Metall, which represents 2.3 million employees in the metal working and electrical sectors, often makes demands that set benchmarks for wage negotiations in those industries and beyond.

“The four-day week... could make it possible to keep industrial jobs instead of scrapping them,” its leader Joerg Hofman told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

The coronavirus crisis has put some 300,000 jobs at risk in Germany’s metal and electrical industry, an IG Metall board member said last month.

The gradual switch to electric cars also threatens tens of thousands of engine and gearbox manufacturing jobs in Germany.

Hofman said that, if companies agreed to cut working time, employees should not necessarily see their salary cut by the same amount or they would not be able to afford to work fewer hours.

He said companies had an interest in cutting hours rather than laying off staff, as this would allow them to retain skilled workers and save redundancy costs.

Hofman also called on the government to extend short-time working benefits that have helped cushion the blow of the pandemic to 24 months from a current maximum of 21 months.

Short-time work is a form of state aid that allows employers to switch employees to shorter working hours during an economic downturn to keep them on the payroll.

About 5.6 million Germans currently benefit from the scheme, according to the Ifo research institute.

After a series of strikes, the IG Metall union agreed a deal in 2018 to allow staff to cut their working week to 28 hours for up to two years to care for children or other relatives.

SOURCE: Reuters

 

[TruckElectric]

My money is on IG Metall. It's not a matter of Musk vs the Union, it's a matter of Musk versus German culture that dates back over a century.

Good luck to Musk and I hope to be wrong.

Unions carry a lot of weight in Deutschland so you may be right as to who wins. Even if somehow Giga Berlin opens without a union it won't be long before it is unionized. I just can't see an auto manufacturing plant in Deutschland being non-union. Tesla would be demonized as "that arrogant American company".

 

[TruckElectric]

Eva Fox is betting on Elon


Tesla Giga Berlin Will Create Thousands of Jobs to Accelerate World's Transition to Sustainable Energy -- Without Trade Unions
by Eva Fox December 02, 2020

Giga Berlin Tesla

Photo credit: @gigafactory_4/Twitter


Tesla will create thousands of jobs at its first European plant -- Gigafactory Berlin -- and will transform the entire region, making it one of the premier economic centers of Germany. The Brandenburg area suffers from a lack of jobs and Tesla is sure to solve this problem.

The California-based company offers very favorable working conditions for everyone, from long-term employees to highly skilled professionals. The salary starts at 2,700 euros per month, which is higher than the regional average.

However, a union, IG Metall, came into the picture. At the center of the conflict is Tesla's refusal to sign collective wage agreements. The American company offers its employees attractive salaries to unite in achieving the main goal: accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy. If Tesla manages to satisfy its employees, which is likely to happen, it will jeopardize IG Metall's goals and undermine its credibility.

However, Tesla's factory is being built and will create thousands of jobs, while automakers across the country continue to cut their workforce. At the same time, more flexible terms of employment and remuneration in existing factories of German manufacturers could possibly prevent mass layoffs. In fact, a successful rivalry between Tesla and the union can be a salvation for automakers, because the old model with unions has already exhausted itself.

“Our corporate culture tends to keep things the way they’ve always been,” says Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of automotive research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. "Musk is someone who can break that open, and that is the major opportunity here -- also for the German carmakers."

Practice shows that trade unions are harmful because they act as monopolies. Union members can demand higher wages and work less. Threatening to stop working if companies do not pay employees more, unions are forcing companies to lay off some workers.

And the bottom line is that trade unions are harmful not only to companies but also to workers. They turn workers against employers, consumers, shareholders, and other workers, focusing only on a select group of workers. As a result, everyone loses, both companies and employees.

© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

EVA FOX
I'm a big fan of Tesla, as I worry about the future for my child and for future generations. Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy and I'm passionately striving for this goal. I’m tired of the daily deception from Tesla’s haters against the company, so I strive to spread true information and the latest news about Tesla.
Follow me on Twitter



SOURCE: TESMANIAN

 

[Crissa]

That author isn't a teensy bit biased, are they? Several of their statements are fabrications or out of context.

-Crissa

 

[Ehninger1212]

Sure they could form a Union in Texas. They just wont have very much power. Here they are more like.. Clubs.

 

[TruckElectric]

Sure they could form a Union in Texas. They just wont have very much power.

If Tesla is unionized it will be UAW. How much power does the UAW have? Well, the UAW strike of GM in 1998 went on for 54 days cost GM more than $2 billion in profits.

 

[ldjessee]

If you watched the latest Sandy Munro (), I think that it really lowers the bar for training and taking some of the leverage away from unions. I support unions that are employee focused but not the ones who go too far. And the difference is a nebulous line and I am not sure I am qualified to define it.

I believe that employees should be treated well, well compensated, and that they should have the freedom to shop their skills around (ie, not a fan of non-compete agreements).

But, if the company cannot adjust to the changing market and such because the workers union is holding the company back... that is an issue that will correct itself eventually... just ask the buggy whip manufacturers.

 

[Crissa]

Companies without Unions are not more likely to go the distance, though. They have this tendency to take risks with lives and outsourcing which robs the company of institutional knowledge and stability.

It is not, in fact, better to hire more people at less money. Not for the company - which gets crappier work in return - nor for the employees, who are the unable to invest in their community.

It's a balance issue.

-Crissa

 

[VI Tesla]

I worked in a unionized pulp and papermill as a student. This mill has been operating since 1910, was once the largest pulp and paper mill in the world. The same mill is now on it's last legs and IMO in large part due to unions. I watched as staff fell asleep for 4 hrs of a 12 hr shift. When I asked about it, there's nothing they can do, the guys protected by the union 'he has a sleeping disorder'. Not a big deal if production can continue. In this case it couldn't as his position was part of the chain, he stops the whole mill stops.
I recall the guys saying why don't you just stay you're in the union now they can't kick you out....scared the the crap out of me.
Don't get me wrong unions did/do have there place but have gone too far and no longer protect the jobs they are intended to.

 

[Crissa]

Unions can go bad, just as companies can.

Like I said, it's a balance. Without that Union, that factory probably wouldn't have made it 100 years.

Unions protecting workers from for-cause firing and seniority should probably be done away with... Just like we don't allow people to sign away some rights in a contract, well, we don't allow companies to, either.

-Crissa

 

[firsttruck]

I worked in a unionized pulp and papermill as a student. This mill has been operating since 1910, was once the largest pulp and paper mill in the world. The same mill is now on it's last legs and IMO in large part due to unions. I watched as staff fell asleep for 4 hrs of a 12 hr shift. When I asked about it, there's nothing they can do, the guys protected by the union 'he has a sleeping disorder'. Not a big deal if production can continue. In this case it couldn't as his position was part of the chain, he stops the whole mill stops.
I recall the guys saying why don't you just stay you're in the union now they can't kick you out....scared the the crap out of me.
Don't get me wrong unions did/do have there place but have gone too far and no longer protect the jobs they are intended to.

Can you give name of this company & factory? What decade did this happen?

 

[TruckElectric]

Companies without Unions are not more likely to go the distance, though. They have this tendency to take risks with lives and outsourcing which robs the company of institutional knowledge and stability.

The Toyota plant on the outskirts of San Antonio, TMMTX, is non-union. I think all of Toyota plants in the U.S. are non-union. This says at least 10 U.S. Toyota plants are non-union dated 2010 NYT - U.A.W. Chief Is Taking On Toyota Plants. And it seems UAW is still trying to unionize Toyota - UAW - TOYOTA WORKERS TOGETHER

The other Texas auto manufacturering plant is GM in Arlington which is UAW represented.

 

[Crissa]

The Toyota...

Toyota hasn't gone 100 years as a capitalist endeavor yet. (and they got rebooted ten years after they started.) We'll see.

-Crissa