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Generally speaking one major reason is that union representatives are also on company boards in the Europe. This gives them skin in the game and also the same k

Generally speaking one major reason is that union representatives are also on company boards in the Europe. This gives them skin in the game and also the same knowledge that gets shared to the rest of the board. And they generally err on the side of employment; American unions have threatened, and successfully, brought down companies that ceased to be a going concern due to demanding unreasonable concessions. (See: Yellow Trucking) But German unions are also very subservient given their tacit approvals of things like Agenda 2010.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>But German unions are also very subservient given their tacit approvals of things like Agenda 2010. My point exactly. Unions aren't here to fight for even better working conditions for you like mandatory WFH for everyone, but just to overwatch to make sure the company adheres to existing labor regulations. That's it. So yeah, unions are relatively toothless and the QoL and the living standards of the working class in Germany has been on the decline for a while.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  Unions can do whatever they set their mind to, and whatever their membership elects to do. Like humanity itself and other broad categories, saying as a matter of fact that unions can’t do X, when some unions do X, is pretty asinine, almost as much as lumping more than 3B people into “Asians” or other useless categorizations. Particularly if the article doesn’t mention a country of origin being Germany. You don’t even have to look very far from Germany to find a union negotiating WFH. https://rfi.fr/en/france/20201205-why-france-is-struggling-to-embrace-the-work-from-home-revolution-covid-19-telecommuting-unions https://rfi.fr/en/france/20201205-why-france-is-struggling-t... https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1993852.html https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1993852.html
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    Sure, unions can in theory demand whatever they want, but if they don't show enough teeth, as in actually having strikes, they usually don't ask because the corporate overlords will say 'no' anyway. Unions in Germany are usually a lot more submissively than in France and rarely fight for gaining new perks, they just look after maintain the existing ones, moistly following the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" mentality.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>But German unions are also very subservient given their tacit approvals of things like Agenda 2010. My point exactly. Unions aren't here to fight for even better working conditions for you like mandatory WFH for everyone, but just to overwatch to make sure the company adheres to existing labor regulations. That's it. So yeah, unions are relatively toothless and the QoL and the living standards of the working class in Germany has been on the decline for a while.

bobthepanda 3y ago
Unions can do whatever they set their mind to, and whatever their membership elects to do. Like humanity itself and other broad categories, saying as a matter of fact that unions can’t do X, when some unions do X, is pretty asinine, almost as much as lumping more than 3B people into “Asians” or other useless categorizations. Particularly if the article doesn’t mention a country of origin being Germany. You don’t even have to look very far from Germany to find a union negotiating WFH. https://rfi.fr/en/france/20201205-why-france-is-struggling-to-embrace-the-work-from-home-revolution-covid-19-telecommuting-unions https://rfi.fr/en/france/20201205-why-france-is-struggling-t... https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1993852.html https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1993852.html
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  Sure, unions can in theory demand whatever they want, but if they don't show enough teeth, as in actually having strikes, they usually don't ask because the corporate overlords will say 'no' anyway. Unions in Germany are usually a lot more submissively than in France and rarely fight for gaining new perks, they just look after maintain the existing ones, moistly following the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" mentality.