4 ms·

As a member of the German Education and Science Union i have to strongly disagree. Germany is becoming a low income country for a lot of jobs and the unions ar

by jojoo 9y ago

As a member of the German Education and Science Union i have to strongly disagree. Germany is becoming a low income country for a lot of jobs and the unions are doing nothing against it. Year after year all German workers have collective bargaining agreements close to inflation, while the economy booms. The union-reps are in bed with the companys and workers eat it up.

usrusr 9y ago
Oh, unions are fighting for workers, just not very successful. They can lower the impact of market forces, but they cannot negate them. Who they are notoriously not fighting for is temp workers and future temp workers who have it much worse than barely matching inflation. Darkly logical, temps are not members.
karllager 9y ago
> Germany is becoming a low income country for a lot of jobs and the unions are doing nothing against it. Yes, this is true. About 39% of the currently employed have so called atypical jobs [1] - some of which are actually subsidized by the state, because income is so low. Germany is an austerity poster child - I wonder what will happen, if the export boom is over. Things might become much worse, once the debt-financed foreign purchases dry up for some reason. [1] https://www.boeckler.de/108863_108907.htm https://www.boeckler.de/108863_108907.htm (German only).
- lucaspiller 9y ago
  It sounds like Germany is just catching up with the rest of Europe.
adventured 9y ago
Where are you seeing that the German economy is booming? It hasn't net expanded in ten years. GDP 2007: $3.44 trillion vs 2016: $3.46 trillion It has been averaging around 1.5% GDP growth since 2011. That is not booming. Germany may finally climb above the pre great recession era GDP numbers in 2017. Germany is having the problems that it is, precisely due to the lack of meaningful economic growth. There's no scenario where you're going to see almost any wage growth if GDP is mired in 0.5% to 1.5% type expansion; to make matters worse, the next recession will easily swat the recent modest gains right back down (which is one of the many reasons faster growth is a must, inevitably a recession will occur).
- lispm 9y ago
  BIP in Germany in 2007: 2.5 trillion Euro BIP in Germany in 2016: 3.1 trillion Euro https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1251/umfrage/entwicklung-des-bruttoinlandsprodukts-seit-dem-jahr-1991/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1251/umfrage/... 1.5% GDP growth in a country with a developed economy and a constant population number is actually okay. In such an economy GDP growth is linked to population growth...
tim333 9y ago
>union-reps are in bed with the company... I imagine more of the problem is German factories have to compete with those in lower wage EU countries like Poland and so have limited room to pay more.

by jojoo 9y ago

usrusr 9y ago

Oh, unions are fighting for workers, just not very successful. They can lower the impact of market forces, but they cannot negate them. Who they are notoriously not fighting for is temp workers and future temp workers who have it much worse than barely matching inflation. Darkly logical, temps are not members.

karllager 9y ago

> Germany is becoming a low income country for a lot of jobs and the unions are doing nothing against it. Yes, this is true. About 39% of the currently employed have so called atypical jobs [1] - some of which are actually subsidized by the state, because income is so low. Germany is an austerity poster child - I wonder what will happen, if the export boom is over. Things might become much worse, once the debt-financed foreign purchases dry up for some reason. [1] https://www.boeckler.de/108863_108907.htm https://www.boeckler.de/108863_108907.htm (German only).

lucaspiller 9y ago
It sounds like Germany is just catching up with the rest of Europe.

adventured 9y ago

Where are you seeing that the German economy is booming? It hasn't net expanded in ten years. GDP 2007: $3.44 trillion vs 2016: $3.46 trillion It has been averaging around 1.5% GDP growth since 2011. That is not booming. Germany may finally climb above the pre great recession era GDP numbers in 2017. Germany is having the problems that it is, precisely due to the lack of meaningful economic growth. There's no scenario where you're going to see almost any wage growth if GDP is mired in 0.5% to 1.5% type expansion; to make matters worse, the next recession will easily swat the recent modest gains right back down (which is one of the many reasons faster growth is a must, inevitably a recession will occur).

lispm 9y ago
BIP in Germany in 2007: 2.5 trillion Euro BIP in Germany in 2016: 3.1 trillion Euro https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1251/umfrage/entwicklung-des-bruttoinlandsprodukts-seit-dem-jahr-1991/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1251/umfrage/... 1.5% GDP growth in a country with a developed economy and a constant population number is actually okay. In such an economy GDP growth is linked to population growth...

tim333 9y ago

>union-reps are in bed with the company... I imagine more of the problem is German factories have to compete with those in lower wage EU countries like Poland and so have limited room to pay more.