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How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much

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In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany's big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.

How can that be? The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that "the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race."

There are "two overlapping sets of institutions" in Germany that guarantee high wages and good working conditions for autoworkers. The first is IG Metall, the country's equivalent of the United Automobile Workers. Virtually all Germany's car workers are members, and though they have the right to strike, they "hardly use it, because there is an elaborate system of conflict resolution that regularly is used to come to some sort of compromise that is acceptable to all parties," according to Horst Mund, an IG Metall executive. The second institution is the German constitution, which allows for "works councils" in every factory, where management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions and work life. Mund says this guarantees cooperation, "where you don't always wear your management pin or your union pin."

Mund points out that this goes

"against all mainstream wisdom of the neo-liberals. We have strong unions, we have strong social security systems, we have high wages. So, if I believed what the neo-liberals are arguing, we would have to be bankrupt, but apparently this is not the case. Despite high wages . . . despite our possibility to influence companies, the economy is working well in Germany.
"

As Michael Maibach, president and chief executive of the European American Business Council, puts it, union-management relations in the U.S. are "adversarial," whereas in Germany they're "collaborative."

Does such a happy relationship survive when German automakers set up shop in the U.S.? No. As a historian observes in the article, "BMW is a German company and it has a very German hierarchy and management system in Germany," yet "when they are operating in Spartanburg [in South Carolina] they have become very, very easily adaptable to Spartanburg business culture." At Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant, the nonunionized new employees get $14.50 an hour, which rises to $19.50 after three years.

http://www.forbes.co...-twice-as-much/

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: England
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Bloody Cramer

On Monday, I finally let CNBC convince me that Europe had major problems, so I sold the $40k of German index that I had been holding for quite a while

Tuesday it went up 7%

I can remember similar propaganda in the US about Britain in the early 1980's - Americans were actually sending food parcels to the UK

No more letting the media influence me - ever again

Yes Germany has a wonderful future - when I first went to Munich in the 80's, I saw jewelery shops in the underground train passenger access tunnels and they had no bars on the shop windows !

Everyone is trained to their max and does their best and lives in rented apartments rather than taking a massive mortgage

No litter !

It's ok to get drunk as there is no trouble that follows

Munich is my favorite city and I was the Geschäftsführer (responsible company officer)there - all very serious.

When you look at the state of the US, its quite ironic that they think the 400 million person economy in Europe is finished and Mitt Romney is right when he says the US is 'The finest country that has ever existed in the history of the world"

My mother used to say that "Pride comes before a fall"

Edited by Ashud Cocoa

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Brazil
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Yes Germany has a wonderful future - when I first went to Munich in the 80's, I saw jewelery shops in the underground train passenger access tunnels and they had no bars on the shop windows !

Everyone is trained to their max and does their best and lives in rented apartments rather than taking a massive mortgage

No litter !

now it looks just like the states.

* ~ * Charles * ~ *
 

I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.

 

USE THE REPORT BUTTON INSTEAD OF MESSAGING A MODERATOR!

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Ukraine
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Bloody Cramer

On Monday, I finally let CNBC convince me that Europe had major problems, so I sold the $40k of German index that I had been holding for quite a while

Tuesday it went up 7%

I can remember similar propaganda in the US about Britain in the early 1980's - Americans were actually sending food parcels to the UK

No more letting the media influence me - ever again

Yes Germany has a wonderful future - when I first went to Munich in the 80's, I saw jewelery shops in the underground train passenger access tunnels and they had no bars on the shop windows !

Everyone is trained to their max and does their best and lives in rented apartments rather than taking a massive mortgage

No litter !

It's ok to get drunk as there is no trouble that follows

Munich is my favorite city and I was the Geschäftsführer (responsible company officer)there - all very serious.

When you look at the state of the US, its quite ironic that they think the 400 million person economy in Europe is finished and Mitt Romney is right when he says the US is 'The finest country that has ever existed in the history of the world"

My mother used to say that "Pride comes before a fall"

:lol:

VERMONT! I Reject Your Reality...and Substitute My Own!

Gary And Alla

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: England
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now it looks just like the states.

Actually, a 'good area' in the States reminds me of Germany

What with the 'homeowners associations' and all

Of course German emigration to the US has always been 50% greater than the UK in proportion with the populations, so no doubt all the nazi politics came with them hence the tea party and the willingness to kill people who are not US citizens (= non-arians) and who have no rights - the 'under-people'

I guess that as long as you behave and have money, then the US and Germany are similar

If they didn't eat boiled pig's knuckles etc there, I could enjoy living in Germany

The UK is a litter strewn, drunken mess, but at least there is an undercurrent of basic human decency which pervades all political opinions and all classes of persons and the whole of society - and shooting abortion doctors in the head for religious reasons isn't something that happens - ever

Because I am clean with enough money and rain-averse, the US is the place for me though I must say I don't like the culture or humor, which is all about the human bottom and what cruelties can be done to it

I ignore all that and do my own thing

I like the German sense of humor which is undetectable to most Brits - its very dry and quite clever

Civis Romanus sum

Edited by Ashud Cocoa

moresheep400100.jpg

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Russia
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In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany's big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.

How can that be? The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that "the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race."

There are "two overlapping sets of institutions" in Germany that guarantee high wages and good working conditions for autoworkers. The first is IG Metall, the country's equivalent of the United Automobile Workers. Virtually all Germany's car workers are members, and though they have the right to strike, they "hardly use it, because there is an elaborate system of conflict resolution that regularly is used to come to some sort of compromise that is acceptable to all parties," according to Horst Mund, an IG Metall executive. The second institution is the German constitution, which allows for "works councils" in every factory, where management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions and work life. Mund says this guarantees cooperation, "where you don't always wear your management pin or your union pin."

Mund points out that this goes

"against all mainstream wisdom of the neo-liberals. We have strong unions, we have strong social security systems, we have high wages. So, if I believed what the neo-liberals are arguing, we would have to be bankrupt, but apparently this is not the case. Despite high wages . . . despite our possibility to influence companies, the economy is working well in Germany.
"

As Michael Maibach, president and chief executive of the European American Business Council, puts it, union-management relations in the U.S. are "adversarial," whereas in Germany they're "collaborative."

Does such a happy relationship survive when German automakers set up shop in the U.S.? No. As a historian observes in the article, "BMW is a German company and it has a very German hierarchy and management system in Germany," yet "when they are operating in Spartanburg [in South Carolina] they have become very, very easily adaptable to Spartanburg business culture." At Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant, the nonunionized new employees get $14.50 an hour, which rises to $19.50 after three years.

http://www.forbes.co...-twice-as-much/

This article is terribly inaccurate. The US produced over 8 million cars and light trucks last year.

Average wages were $55 per hour including benefits, although labor costs were $70 per hour.

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: England
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This article is terribly inaccurate. The US produced over 8 million cars and light trucks last year.

Average wages were $55 per hour including benefits, although labor costs were $70 per hour.

But who wants a chevy when they can have a beemer ?

Mexico is the place to produce cars - and they do

The US manufacturing sector cannot be fixed with a 17% add on for healthcare. All other countries do it for 7 or 8 %

The US is carrying expensive doctors, hospitals and insurance companies and their stranglehold and their profits has killed many industries stone dead, and made other products so expensive they are vulnerable to foreign competition

With a universal health care system, those costs could be slashed in half and the people might live as long as those in other 1st world countries

Edited by Ashud Cocoa

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Brazil
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But who wants a chevy when they can have a beemer ?

beemer makes a decent pick up truck?

* ~ * Charles * ~ *
 

I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.

 

USE THE REPORT BUTTON INSTEAD OF MESSAGING A MODERATOR!

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: England
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beemer makes a decent pick up truck?

Nobody drives pick up trucks except Americans - I find that really odd.

Its a cultural thing I guess. No European woman would get in a pick up truck in order not to look like granny Clampitt

Eating food with chop sticks or driving big numb pick up trucks is something foreigners do and it cant be explained

Even German Tanks are more fuel efficient now

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Filed: AOS (pnd) Country: Canada
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It's a shame we can't drive German cars here in the southern US (no I'm not talking about the water-down versions of Volkswagons we get here in this country)... Damn heat would cause the engines to blow up.

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Nobody drives pick up trucks except Americans - I find that really odd.

Its a cultural thing I guess. No European woman would get in a pick up truck in order not to look like granny Clampitt

Eating food with chop sticks or driving big numb pick up trucks is something foreigners do and it cant be explained

perhaps only americans drive them because we have more stuff to haul/do ;)

and as i recall, you're an american now, so it's not something "foreigners do" :hehe:

* ~ * Charles * ~ *
 

I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.

 

USE THE REPORT BUTTON INSTEAD OF MESSAGING A MODERATOR!

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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: England
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It's a shame we can't drive German cars here in the southern US (no I'm not talking about the water-down versions of Volkswagons we get here in this country)... Damn heat would cause the engines to blow up.

Its strange how BMW was able to build aircraft engines that didn't blow up at high altitude and high revs, and yet their cars stop working when the sun comes out and all the Germans have to rent 1973 Chevies to get home

If Germany didn't have socialized medicine, their cars would run like Fords

My Suzuki motorbike is built to run on rice I am told. The Pastor told me. It isn't working too well so I am going to buy a Harley and put burgers in the tank

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Isle of Man
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Nobody drives pick up trucks except Americans - I find that really odd.

Its a cultural thing I guess. No European woman would get in a pick up truck in order not to look like granny Clampitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBosdwFJzd4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7-JQu81Rcw&feature=related

Edited by Lord Infamous

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