[lbo-talk] EU Still Not the US

dano dano at well.com
Wed Sep 8 06:30:17 PDT 2004


At 12:53 PM -0700 9/7/04, Dennis Redmond wrote:
> > France especially but also Germany are moving towards the
> > American model of corporate management. Of course the foundation is
> > still the traditional European social structure, but they're going
> > that direction.
>
>There's not a lot of evidence for this. One of the oldest refrains of the
>post-1968 US biz culture is the lament that Europe's welfare states are
>unsustainable, but that the new generation is, fortunately, becoming
>Americanized.

The strikes in France of earlier this summer and all last summer were of unionized government workers against the government changing the retirement and employment plans. French automotive and textile production is moving out of France to Eastern Europe and Asia. Increasingly, corporate managers and managing for (short term) quarterly financial goals rather than (long term) industrial or production goals. Many French corporations are pressuring the government (right wing) to change the 35 hour work week back to 40 hours, and I've heard anecdotal evidence that even many workers think it's less than effective.

The German automotive industry won concessions from workers earlier this year in wages and hours worked. The argument was that workers give up some of these benefits or else the jobs would be moved out of Germany. And these negotiations between ownership and workforce were quite reasonable and peaceful.

I don't see the social welfare structure being reduced, but globalization is happening whether we like it or not, and it affects everybody. Management is forced to reduce costs or be put out of business.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list