Elon vs IG Metall Union - Who will win?

[firsttruck]

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

-Crissa

"New" GM (General Motors Company) is not a successful 100 year capitalist endeavor.

General Motors filed for a government-backed Chapter 11 reorganization on June 8, 2009
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors#Chapter_11_bankruptcy
.....
"General Motors Corporation" filed for a government-backed Chapter 11 reorganization on June 8, 2009. On July 10, 2009, the original General Motors sold assets and some subsidiaries to an entirely new company including the trademark General Motors.

** Liabilities were left with the original GM (General Motors Corporation) freeing the companies of many liabilities resulting in a new GM (General Motors Company). **

So original GM (General Motors Corporation) lasted over 100 years but in the end was a deadbeat debtor.

In 1920 there were probably several companies with 100 years of expertise in horses & coaches. How much was that expertise worth in 1920s.

Eastman Kodak Company had over 100 years of expertise but it did not guarantee they remained leader in cameras in 2000s.
Kodak Bankruptcy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak#Bankruptcy

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[alan auerbach]

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.

Surely German car unions aren't all that harmful to the industry since the most important vehicle makers in Europe (if not the world) are in Germany. Similar for Japan. But England and North America might be a different story and I fear that unionizing the Austin plant would be disastrous.

 

[TruckElectric]

I'm pretty sure Tesla is not included but I could be wrong. "In June, the German government had already allocated almost €50 billion from its €130 billion economic stimulus package to the auto industry."


Things work differently in Germany.

"IG Metall is using its own financial resources for this purpose and is demanding taxpayers’ money from the government to finance and accelerate the restructuring of the German auto industry."


Greedy shareholders!

"First, the greed of the auto company executives, owners, shareholders and investment funds that dictate all the important decisions of the auto concerns is boundless. Every aspect of production is aimed at increasing returns, profits, share prices, dividends and personal enrichment. While the corporations collect vast sums of government money, the billions are passed on to shareholders—not only indirectly via rising share prices, but also directly."



The IG Metall trade union is playing the key role on behalf of German auto companies in the international trade war. A week ago, at their so-called “Auto Summit,” the German government—a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD)—agreed with the auto companies and the union on additional billions of euros to support the auto industry. Now the union is pushing for quick implementation of the funding.

On Nov. 17, a number of federal ministers, state premiers, union representatives and the leaders of the governing parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD, took part in a virtual auto summit alongside leading car industry representatives. In June, the German government had already allocated almost €50 billion from its €130 billion economic stimulus package to the auto industry. Now it is providing an additional €3 billion to the auto and auto supplier industries.

“IG Metall welcomes the resolutions at today’s auto summit,” declared IG Metall Chairman Jörg Hofmann. The resolution includes important demands raised by the union, he continued. The issue now was implementing the decisions without delay.

In particular, the union leader was pleased with the government’s support for the “Best Owner Group” investment fund initiated by IG Metall. This private equity fund was set up by the union in the summer and aims to buy up and restructure auto and supplier companies threatened by insolvency. In this way, the fund aims to secure the supply chains for the auto companies while at the same time slashing “overcapacities” or closing down companies completely. IG Metall is using its own financial resources for this purpose and is demanding taxpayers’ money from the government to finance and accelerate the restructuring of the German auto industry.

The German government supports this initiative. It will devote €1 billion for a “Future Fund for the Automotive Industry” so that the industry, the unions and science can work together to develop “medium and long-term transformation strategies for the auto industry,” explained government spokesman Thorsten Seibert.

“But also the other decisions,” according to IG Metall, “such as the acceleration of the expansion of charging infrastructure and the promotion of battery cell production are important impulses.” In addition, the purchase premium of up to €9,000 for purely electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will be extended until 2025, a measure which corresponds to about another €1 billion in aid for the industry. The government had already extended this so-called “innovation premium” this summer until the end of 2021.

A further billion euros is available for the replacement of older trucks. Half of this money is to go to the federal Ministry of Transport to purchase new trucks, and half to companies to renew their own fleets.

Predictably the heads of the German auto industry also welcomed the new billion-euro funding commitments of the government. Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess said he was delighted that Germany would become the “leading market” for electric mobility following the auto summit.


IG Metall claims that the state funding will be used to make the restructuring of the auto industry to produce electric vehicles “socially acceptable” and that this will benefit employees. This is simply a lie.

First, the greed of the auto company executives, owners, shareholders and investment funds that dictate all the important decisions of the auto concerns is boundless. Every aspect of production is aimed at increasing returns, profits, share prices, dividends and personal enrichment. While the corporations collect vast sums of government money, the billions are passed on to shareholders—not only indirectly via rising share prices, but also directly.

Hardly had the first round of the €50 billion aid been paid out in the spring, at a time when all the major auto and supplier plants financed their workforces via state-financed short-time working allowances, than the sports auto manufacturer Porsche announced it would be distributing €952 million in dividends to shareholders. Around half of this, almost half a billion euros, went directly to the Porsche family itself.

Shortly afterwards, BMW shareholders received dividends of over €1.6 billion. A large proportion flowed into the bank accounts of the main owner families Quandt and Klatten. Susanne Klatten is the richest woman in Germany, with assets of €21 billion. Together with her brother Stefan Quandt (assets of €15 billion), she owns just under 50 percent of BMW shares.

When this “dividend payment at state expense” became known in May, the news triggered fierce protest. As a result, further information about the distribution of profits was kept under wraps. When Volkswagen decided to pay a dividend of around €2.4 billion at the end of September, the media remained silent.

Secondly, the state money is being used to prepare the auto companies for a global economic war, to be fought out at the expense of the workforce. The measures divide workers along national boundaries and thereby prevent a common struggle against the internationally operating auto companies. This division of workers is in turn exploited to depress wages and working conditions even further. And finally, based on experience, trade war is only the prelude to military war. Both the First and Second World Wars had their origins in the irreconcilable economic and strategic clash of interests between the major capitalist powers.

In early 2019 the German minister of economics, Peter Altmaier (CDU), had already presented his concept for a “National Industrial Strategy 2030.” It stated: “Industrial policy strategies are experiencing a renaissance in many parts of the world; there is hardly a successful country that relies exclusively and without exception on market forces to accomplish its tasks.” And further: “There are obviously strategies of rapid expansion with the clear aim of conquering new markets for one’s own economy and—wherever possible—monopolizing them. Altmaier stressed the role of state financing to develop “completely new mobility concepts” in the auto industry.

IG Metall expressly supports this national government strategy and its associated trade war offensive. A new start in industrial policy is overdue, explained Wolfgang Lemb, managing member of the IGM executive, in response to Altmaier’s paper. But “promotion based on an indiscriminate watering-can principle” would not be target-oriented. The state had to take on more responsibility; the market alone could not fix the problems. It was important to expand “national industrial policy leeway in competition and public procurement law.” Key industries must be identified and supported “with industrial and policy instruments such as structural funds or a European Investment Bank.”

The trade union is well aware this will involve further attacks on workers’ wages and working conditions. The Altmaier paper already stated that the “considerable lead of German industry in terms of technology and quality,” which has offset the “advantage of much lower wage and manufacturing costs in important emerging markets,” is “slowly but surely” melting away. As a result, “competitive pressure is also increasing in areas where German companies have been unrivaled to date.”

In response, IG Metall is drawing up its own plans for rationalization and restructuring, dressed up as usual with flowery titles such as “Pact for the Future 2030,” but which in fact are intended to cut jobs and workers’ social standards. The union criticizes the auto companies from the right and demands they step up the fight against their international rivals—above all the US and China.

IG Metall complains that Tesla owner Elon Musk, who is building a mammoth factory for electric vehicles in Grünheide near Berlin, as well as the world’s largest auto battery factory, was able to rely on the policies of former US President Barack Obama, who had favored the US auto industry. At the same time, the government of China under Xi Jinping is massively supporting its domestic auto companies and pushing ahead with the expansion of electric vehicles. IG Metall warns the German auto companies against regarding China only as a large sales market, while ignoring the fact that the country is at the same time a powerful and dynamic competitor.

The union agrees with the German government that in view of intensified global competition, the German auto industry must be rationalized and “global champions” developed—with comprehensive state support.

The fact that this “auto pact” is directed against autoworkers is also evident in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The virus is spreading rapidly, with between 120,000 and 150,000 people dying of the coronavirus every month in Europe. Safety measures in many companies are completely inadequate, and many staff are confined to overcrowded buses and trains on the way to and from work, but the union is doing nothing to increase the safety of workers.

On the contrary. In early summer, the IG Metall union called for the accelerated resumption of industrial production and demanded the rapid restoration of supply chains. It opposes any demand to stop production in non-essential operations. Along with the government and corporate management, it puts the profit system above the life and health of the workers.

Union safety representatives on works councils are instructed to keep quiet about company coronavirus infections and deny employees important information about the number of people infected, their immediate contacts and necessary quarantine measures. As was the case at VW at the end of April, the works councils and shop stewards on site glorify the alleged safety at factories, although they know much better.

Under these conditions, it is becoming increasingly urgent for workers to free themselves from the straitjacket of the trade unions and organize and control themselves independently. That is why the WSWS and the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) are calling for the creation of independent action committees to discuss and organize immediate measures not only to improve work safety, but also defend all jobs, wages and benefits.

This requires a political break with the reactionary concepts of Germany’s so-called “social partnership” and co-determination policy. For decades IG Metall and other trade unions spread the lie that the interests of capital and labor could be negotiated and balanced in partnership. Now it is becoming apparent on a daily basis that this propaganda serves only to mask the role of the trade unions as the handmaiden of the corporate bosses. The unions declare that workers must accept mass layoffs, social cuts and COVID-19 deaths in the workplace in order to save capitalism.

The WSWS and SGP resolutely oppose this reactionary demagogy. We support all initiatives to build independent action committees and to fight for an international socialist program that unites workers across all company and national barriers and prepares a general strike.


SOURCE: World Socialist Web Site

 

[Crissa]

That article took a dark turn at the end where it editorialized against the Union for not 'doing anything' for safety measures after quoting the Union trying to increase safety measures.

Sheesh.

-Crissa

 

[ajdelange]

Every aspect of production is aimed at increasing returns, profits, share prices, dividends and personal enrichment.

Uh, yes. Isn't that what a corporation is supposed to do? Isn't our hope/prayer/asessment/guess that Tesla can do those things the reason we buy their stock (and every other issue in our portfolios)?

 

[TruckElectric]

Uh, yes. Isn't that what a corporation is supposed to do? Isn't our hope/prayer/asessment/guess that Tesla can do those things the reason we buy their stock (and every other issue in our portfolios)?

Yes, it's called *capitalism*, the polar opposite of what WS believes in, the author of the article you pulled a quote from.

WS are Marxist, more specifically Trotskyites. If you read the article there's no way you could miss it.

Just to be clear if it wasn't, I'm a capitalist. I was poking fun at the article AND the people who pretend to be *socialist* but in practical matters of their wealth, they are *capitalist*.

They were attacking IG Metall, a trade union, and capitalism, just in case you missed it.

 

[ajdelange]

No. 21 was, just in case you missed it, an example of what's called "understatement" launched here, as it oten is, in an attempt to elicit a chuckle.

Guess I should have said "No sh*t, Sherlock!" Would that have been clearer?

 

[Crissa]

Corporations also ought to follow their charter, be sustainable, and invest in their workers and communities they depend upon.

To not do these things means the company will die, reducing potential profits in the future.

Looking at just the current dividend payment or quarterly profits may be Capitalism, but it's the kind that forgets to plant next year's crop. Which is a real thing that happens.

So yes, paying out executive bonuses while sucking down recovery loans and not spending to protect workers from deadly diseases they're risking by coming into the factory is highly irresponsible, Capitalist or not. It risks losing key workers, worker confidence, investor confidence as the corruption is revealed.

That more executives aren't fired and boards liquidated for liabilities like these is criminal. They're risking next quarters' profits not just their workers' health.

-Crissa

 

[Cybercarlson]

Ya'll get quite worked up about the Unions........

Don't be it is not a real problem.
Actually they have made a different for the better some time ago. Sallary, safety at work, etc..

But as any good thing, if you have too much of it it will turn bad.
Power corrupts, every one.

Just take a look at the on going internal struggle (e.g. at VW and Daimler).
There are Union representatives on the company board resisting the nessesary change to EV.
They (try to) fight a loosing battel.

Actually in Germany every bigger company has to have a representation of (and by) their employees (Mitbestimmungsgesetz) set up (if the employees want to.....), by law !!

Tesla would be well advise to "keep their employees satisfied".
Stock options are a step in that direction.
Let them set up a Tesla GiGa4 Betriebsrat on their own.
Kind of a preemptif strike, even before the production starts!
Do what TESLA does best, be fast!

This will keep the union out (of powerfull positions inside GiGa4).

IG Metall is a big Union, because they not only represent autoworkers.
They are for all metall based factorys, e.g. shipyards, machinery, etc.

But the german mentallity is not as pro strike as other countrys are.
The power (number of menbers) of the unions has been declining for years now.
So has the percentage that voters for the SPD. Times they are changing.......

Elon did make a wise decission in choosing Brandenburg. ??

 

[alan auerbach]

The Toyota plant on the outskirts of San Antonio, TMMTX, is 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.

"I think all of Toyota plants in the U.S. are non-union."
Yes, and the repeated attempts to unionize Toyota plants in Canada have been rebuffed by the employees.

 

[TruckElectric]

No. 21 was, just in case you missed it, an example of what's called "understatement" launched here

Launch ------->SpaceX ?

 

[Cebliminal]

Alabama does not do unions

 

[TruckElectric]

Ya'll get quite worked up about the Unions........

Unions are or can be a polarizing topic of discussion.

I try not to say they are good or bad; I leave that up to the individual and only present facts to ponder over.

I have some experience in unions and have read quite a bit about them over many years.

PATCO(Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization) is an interesting case study.
The information I got from the union about PATCO was missing some facts so as to steer one's opinion. I did my own research into PATCO because I was just curios and didn't trust the union's version of what happened during their strike and eventually the end of PATCO.

I'm not going to go into detail about what happened during the strike only info that is not in Wikipedia. The president of PATCO, Robert Poli was friends with Ronald Reagan and endorsed him during the 1980 presidential campaign. I saw documented communication between the two.
Negotiations didn't go the way Robert Poli wanted so he called for a strike and told his members to walk out. Reagan told the workers to go back to work or be fired. It was an illegal strike because they weren't allowed to by law. Robert Poli told his members not to return to work in defiance of Reagan's demand and so the one's that did not return to work were fired and banned them from federal service for life.

What exactly happened that caused Robert Poli and Ronald Reagan's friendship to end and cause such a terrible outcome I don't know but something did happen.

I know of several heads of unions and many underlings that were convicted of embezzlement and other crimes. I have witnessed minor corruption among local union reps. and would only guess there was much more that I was not privy to.

Company officials can be and have been just as corrupt. The union and corporations are both run and populated by imperfect humans.

So, for me it's hard to say whether unions are a good thing or not. And yes I know all the arguments for unions and for not having them.

Germany seems to have a better relationship with and a more favorable opinion about unions than the U.S. does overall. But I have read that union membership has fallen in Germany over the last few years, somewhat similar as the U.S. unions have experienced.

But anyway thanks for your input and perspective from Deutschland.

 

[Cybercarlson]

Company officials can be and have been just as corrupt. The union and corporations are both run and populated by imperfect humans.

I could not have said it better Bryan. ??

"Power corrupts" is a over simplification.
But it is dangerous to take one mans actions and blame a whole group of people or organisation in general.

Everybody looks at the world from his (limited) perspective and his past experiences.

It is sometimes good to "look over the rim of your own plate" (old german saying translateed), and see what (has) happens (ed) in the world.

In view of our history, I tend to shiver, reading harsh comments about certain groups of people today.

Ordinary people/union officials/socialists/kommunists/etc. have been interned in KZs and killed over here.

This is how it starts, so better think twice. Before we start down the slippery slope.

You might be in one of those groups yourself some day.

 

[ajdelange]

I do remember the PATCO strike well. We used to fly down to Carolina every summer for a week spent with old college friends at the beach. We headed down on a beautiful CAVU day and I remarked to my wife that she should enjoy the trip because it was certain that PACO would walk out the day before we were due to come home and the weather would then turn IMC. So we headed to the airport figuring we'd spend the whole day there waiting for release. To my surprise we got it right away and to my even bigger surprise I have never had better service from ATC. They took the supervisors from behind their desks and put them back in front of scopes which is clearly where they really wanted to be.

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