Free Republic

Germany’s largest trade union IG Metall proposed a four-day working week ahead of the next round of collective bargaining talks due to begin next year, reported German media on Saturday. The shorter week would be “the answer to structural changes in sectors such as the automotive industry,” said union chair Jörg Hoffman to German national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. “With this, jobs in the industry can be kept instead of being written off,” added Hoffman. Germany’s automotive industry — one of the mainstays of the country’s economy —is undergoing a major transformation to e-mobility, spurred by concerns over climate change as...

FairTube is a campaign to get more fairness and transparency for all YouTube Creators. Our proposals Publish all categories and decision criteria that affect monetization and views of videos Give clear explanations for individual decisions — for example, if a video is demonetized, which parts of the video violated which criteria in the Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines? Give YouTubers a human contact person who is qualified and authorized to explain decisions that have negative consequences for YouTubers (and fix them if they are mistaken) Let YouTubers contest decisions that have negative consequences Create an independent mediation board for resolving disputes (here...

Germany's largest trade union is opening a joint office with the United Auto Workers in Tennessee to promote labor issues at German automakers and suppliers in the southern United States. Frankfurt-based IG Metall estimates that 100,000 people work for German-owned automotive companies in the U.S. Most of those workers aren't represented by unions, unlike at their counterparts at plants in Germany. ...

Members of the National Right to Work Foundation believe two German labor groups have failed to completely disclose their full level of involvement in the United Auto Workers’ attempts to set up shop in Chattanooga. As previously reported, the UAW wants to formally establish itself at Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant. The UAW’s attempts have so far been unsuccessful. VW workers, by a tally of 712-626, for instance, voted in February not to join the UAW. Members of the NRTW represent an unspecified number of VW workers who oppose the union. They say that VW’s Global Works Council and IG Metall, a...

The head of the German union representing automotive workers is speaking out against Volkswagen working with anti-labor groups at its plant in Tennessee. In a statement issued Friday in Frankfurt, Germany, IG Metall President Detlef Wetzel called on Volkswagen to “show its true colors” in officially recognizing the United Auto Workers union as its bargaining partner at the Chattanooga factory once the union proves it has signed up a majority of workers there. “It is our objective to guarantee also under the politically difficult circumstances in the United States that labor union rights are respected and co-determination in the plant...

The Chattanooga plant’s February secret-ballot vote to remain non-union was seen as a major triumph for the right-to-work community. But Volkswagen has since been under intense pressure from the company’s highly influential German union IG-METAL to figure out how to void the election result.