
How Does Germany Do It? - godelmachine
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/manufacturing-processing/how-does-germany-do-it
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aurizon
German unions, much like Japanese unions, take the good of the country into
their wage negotiations. US unions engage in strike after strike, even if they
are well paid. The end game for Detroit was written in the union halls, 75-80%
of all UAW jobs were lost to imports (and automation) from the 1960's onwards.

~~~
mtmail
Unions allowed Volkwagen in Germany to switch to a 4-day week (28h) 1995 to
avoid layoffs. It was switch to 5 days (33h) again in 2006. I could imagine in
a different environment (country) unions might have acted differently.
[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-01-04/news/1995004005_...](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-01-04/news/1995004005_1_germany-
vw-plan-wolfsburg)

