Do American auto workers have an inferiority complex? VW workers get paid $67 an hour in Germany [View all]

[pampango]

They make under $20 in the US. GOP lawmakers want to keep it that way

Do American auto workers have an inferiority complex? Do they suffer from such low self esteem that they believe they should be paid significantly less than their counterparts in other countries who build the same cars for the same company? Would they really prefer to have no say whatsoever in how their companies are run, even when their employers are keen to offer them a seat at the table?

There was also no opposition from VW management, who agreed to remain neutral in the process and had even invited UAW representatives onto the factory floor to explain the benefits of organizing. Still, even though their jobs were not under threat and their employers were supportive, a majority of the workers (712 to 626) voted against unionization. Much of the blame for the no vote is being assigned to the right-wing groups and Republican lawmakers in the state, who mounted a relentless, if predictable, anti-union campaign. While this blame is well deserved, the apparent willingness of so many workers to act against their own interests needs to be called into question also.

In Germany, for instance, auto workers at VW plants get paid an average of $67.14 an hour. That's more than double the average hourly rate for an established unionized worker in Detroit, and it's more than three times what the non unionized workers in Chattanooga can hope to earn. According to a company spokesperson, new hires at Chattanooga start at $14.50 an hour, a rate that gradually increases to $19.50 an hour after three years on the job.

Just try to imagine what would happen if German auto workers were told that they would have to accept a major salary cut and give up their many other perks because workers in the US were being paid so much less than them. You can't, right, and that would be because such a situation will never arise. The reason it will never arise is that the Germans have very robust unions and because these unions don't have to operate in a toxic political climate, they are mutually beneficial to workers and management alike, not to mention the broader economy. As Tom Nichols recently argued in the nation:

One of the reasons why Germany has adapted with such agility to the changing economic and structural demands of the globalized economy is the respect that German corporations accord workers.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/19/vw-uaw-tennessee-auto-workers-stupid-or-coerced

VW management and German auto union people must be scratching their heads. I have never heard the $67 an hour number for German auto wages, but I have heard that they pay a lot more than in the US - in the $30-$40 an hour range.