I think Tesla will get a quick lesson about labor laws in Europe and that they are not that easily circumvented as in the US.
**How to get rich**
**1.** Get people to work for you
**2.** Don’t pay them
There is a difference between work council an union in Germany.
Work councils are limited to a specific company and the company is required (by law) to work with them on several topics. Like work safety, organization of shifts or holidays.
Unions are (typically) for more than one company and are more organized around the specific kind of business. Like one for miners, one for teachers, one for pilots.
Unions typically take part in establishing collective agreements on work conditions and payments with companies or public entities joining the equivalent organizations on employers sides.
Edit: Some wording…
Forming a union is something different than forming a works council as described in the article. Either clickbait headline or lack of knowledge. German unions operate industry sector-wide. The mentioned IG Metall for example represents all unionised workers in metal working, eg the automotive workers. Workers can just join them and their contracts are legally binding. A works council operates only on plant-level and must be formed. They have a say about “local” issues as worktimes, safety precautions and things like those but usually have not a huge impact. So what employers fear are strong unions which Tesla can’t prevent. Forming a works council in contrast is usually even in the employers self interest due to work climate and coordination advantages.
Wether Union or Workers-Council, I can already hear him whining about them not understanding “his vision”.
Coming in the late 70s from a “sick man of Europe” Britain with it’s endless strikes and lock-outs and industrial warfare between the workers and the bosses, the complete us and them culture to a Germany at the end of the “Wirtschaftwunder” where workers, bosses and owners worked together for the benefit of all rather than the ultra-benefit of one group or another was one of the reasons I chose to make my home and life in Germany.
In ttat time I have seen a number of American and British startups in Germany make these same cultural errors. It just shows that they may have examined the financial climate but they did not think for a second about the different industrial and political climate. They try to fight it, but that’s a losing battle, instead of embracing it and going for the mutual benefit.
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Form a Union ? They just need to join one.
And workers councils are not unions.
I think Tesla will get a quick lesson about labor laws in Europe and that they are not that easily circumvented as in the US.
**How to get rich**
**1.** Get people to work for you
**2.** Don’t pay them
There is a difference between work council an union in Germany.
Work councils are limited to a specific company and the company is required (by law) to work with them on several topics. Like work safety, organization of shifts or holidays.
Unions are (typically) for more than one company and are more organized around the specific kind of business. Like one for miners, one for teachers, one for pilots.
Unions typically take part in establishing collective agreements on work conditions and payments with companies or public entities joining the equivalent organizations on employers sides.
Edit: Some wording…
Forming a union is something different than forming a works council as described in the article. Either clickbait headline or lack of knowledge. German unions operate industry sector-wide. The mentioned IG Metall for example represents all unionised workers in metal working, eg the automotive workers. Workers can just join them and their contracts are legally binding. A works council operates only on plant-level and must be formed. They have a say about “local” issues as worktimes, safety precautions and things like those but usually have not a huge impact. So what employers fear are strong unions which Tesla can’t prevent. Forming a works council in contrast is usually even in the employers self interest due to work climate and coordination advantages.
Wether Union or Workers-Council, I can already hear him whining about them not understanding “his vision”.
Coming in the late 70s from a “sick man of Europe” Britain with it’s endless strikes and lock-outs and industrial warfare between the workers and the bosses, the complete us and them culture to a Germany at the end of the “Wirtschaftwunder” where workers, bosses and owners worked together for the benefit of all rather than the ultra-benefit of one group or another was one of the reasons I chose to make my home and life in Germany.
In ttat time I have seen a number of American and British startups in Germany make these same cultural errors. It just shows that they may have examined the financial climate but they did not think for a second about the different industrial and political climate. They try to fight it, but that’s a losing battle, instead of embracing it and going for the mutual benefit.