The AfD looks set to take power in a German state for the first time. In a DW exclusive, the front-runner in Saxony-Anhalt discusses plans to detain immigrants and revamp the school system, and relations with Russia.
The problem with the 13 hour day is that it almost only affects people working shitty jobs. It’s not about your office job, but about working the meat industry, fast food whatever. It’s about giving employers more flexibility about how they can exploit you better. Oh the other guy is sick? Then you are doing a 13 hour shift today, have fun! It is only voluntary if you can afford it. And telling more than 5 million people in the low income sector to look for a new job if they don’t like their current one is one of the most privileged things you can say, almost US level.
I have worked manual jobs, where we were offered overtime, the incentives were always good enough for enough to volunteer.
I’ve worked both nights and weekends. Especially when young, many want that extra income, a little older and most prefer time off, for instance for extended holidays.
It’s about giving employers more flexibility
Absolutely.
about how they can exploit you better.
That would be failure of the unions. AFAIK Germany has protected unions pretty much like we have here.
I am not talking about manual labor but low wage exploitation. Food delivery, meat processing, crop harvesting, parcel shipping - a job sector where a lot of non German EU citizen work and you often have short time contracts. I am not talking about being 25 years old working at VW making good money in the factory.
That would be failure of the unions. AFAIK Germany has protected unions
The time where unions were shining is long over in Germany, they have been legally weakened by politics. In many sectors the organization level is ridiculous. A lot of jobs aren’t unionized or there are no adequate tarrifs contracts. IMO it is a rather neo liberal attitude saying it’s the unions fault.
Maybe Germans should vote more left wing, if they want to be able to negotiating with employers on an equal footing.
Unfortunately we have some of the same problems here. It’s as if people who own a house and a little bit of stock, think that now they are suddenly not wage workers anymore.
It is still their wages that enable what they have, but people forget that, and think they are somehow individual successes, when all they do is standing on the shoulders of the work the unions and labor friendly governments have done in the past.
Without them, Germany would be like USA. No holidays, insurance based health care, no free education. And the 1% owning twice as much of the wealth as they already do.
Maybe Germans should vote more left wing, if they want to be able to negotiating with employers on an equal footing.
You say that as if this entire thread wasn’t about that exact issue. And the former left leaning SPD is also the reason we even had the 8 hour work day.
The current government, which has a self proclaimed left and a self proclaimed central party, are doing their best to dismantle all progress made for the common populace in the last 80 years.
The problem with the 13 hour day is that it almost only affects people working shitty jobs. It’s not about your office job, but about working the meat industry, fast food whatever. It’s about giving employers more flexibility about how they can exploit you better. Oh the other guy is sick? Then you are doing a 13 hour shift today, have fun! It is only voluntary if you can afford it. And telling more than 5 million people in the low income sector to look for a new job if they don’t like their current one is one of the most privileged things you can say, almost US level.
I have worked manual jobs, where we were offered overtime, the incentives were always good enough for enough to volunteer.
I’ve worked both nights and weekends. Especially when young, many want that extra income, a little older and most prefer time off, for instance for extended holidays.
Absolutely.
That would be failure of the unions. AFAIK Germany has protected unions pretty much like we have here.
I am not talking about manual labor but low wage exploitation. Food delivery, meat processing, crop harvesting, parcel shipping - a job sector where a lot of non German EU citizen work and you often have short time contracts. I am not talking about being 25 years old working at VW making good money in the factory.
The time where unions were shining is long over in Germany, they have been legally weakened by politics. In many sectors the organization level is ridiculous. A lot of jobs aren’t unionized or there are no adequate tarrifs contracts. IMO it is a rather neo liberal attitude saying it’s the unions fault.
Maybe Germans should vote more left wing, if they want to be able to negotiating with employers on an equal footing.
Unfortunately we have some of the same problems here. It’s as if people who own a house and a little bit of stock, think that now they are suddenly not wage workers anymore.
It is still their wages that enable what they have, but people forget that, and think they are somehow individual successes, when all they do is standing on the shoulders of the work the unions and labor friendly governments have done in the past.
Without them, Germany would be like USA. No holidays, insurance based health care, no free education. And the 1% owning twice as much of the wealth as they already do.
You say that as if this entire thread wasn’t about that exact issue. And the former left leaning SPD is also the reason we even had the 8 hour work day.
The current government, which has a self proclaimed left and a self proclaimed central party, are doing their best to dismantle all progress made for the common populace in the last 80 years.