Its the same all over- the fat and contented will have to shape up and compete. People here should take note.

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 20:53:38 -0500
From: "Adolph E. Ehbrecht" <aee () mags net>
Subject: Its the same all over- the fat and contented will have to shape up and
 compete. People here should take note.
X-Sender: aee () pop3 mags net
To: dave () farber net

I have been telling my German friends for years that all this time off will 
have to go away. They all scoffed. Not anymore.  Note Siemens moving 
software jobs to the East.

From     The Week in Germany from December 18, 2003
             The German Information Center


Bosch will ask its 103,000 German employees to work a 40-hour work week, up 
from 35, without extra compensation, said the group's chairman, Franz 
Fehrenbach.
If workers reject the five-hour increase, the company could begin 
transferring jobs overseas in a bid to keep pace with low-wage competitors. 
"If we don't succeed, then it is likely that we will accelerate the move to 
setting up new plants outside of Germany — especially in the low-wage 
countries," Fehrenbach was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
Keeping an edge, losing jobs?
A longer work week is expected to help Bosch cut its production costs by 3% 
to 5%, Fehrenbach said. "We often lose contracts simply because of these 
few percentage points," he told the German business weekly 
Wirtschaftswoche. "An extended work week and the resulting cost cuts would 
be very helpful."
A spokesman for the powerful IG Metall union nonetheless predicted that 
employees were unlikely to accept the increase. "Such an increase could 
mean every seventh employee losing their job. That is completely 
unacceptable," the spokesman, Franz Stroh, said.
Even worse news
Fehrenbach's comments came after Siemens, the German engineering giant, 
announced plans to move about one-third of its software development 
business, representing about 10,000 jobs, to eastern Europe in the next few 
years. "We are finding excellent employees there that are equipped with 
excellent training," said board member Johannes Feldmayer.
Even worse news for German workers came earlier this month when a report 
showed that one of every four German companies surveyed by the DIHK chamber 
of commerce plans to transfer jobs abroad — mainly to Eastern Europe — in 
the hopes of reducing payroll costs.
Worth the sacrifice?
Faced with three years of economic stagnation and a stubbornly high jobless 
rate, some policymakers and economists have suggested that employees should 
give up a few hours of free time to help nudge Germany out the economic 
doldrums.
The average German worked 1,444 hours in 2002, compared to 1,815 hours for 
the average U.S. worker and 1,707 for the average Briton. Among 
industrialized nations, only workers in Norway and the Netherlands worked 
fewer hours.
With 30 days of vacation and 12 public holidays, German workers enjoy 
nearly twice as many free days as their counterparts in the United States, 
who on average have just 23 days off each year. And even those figures 
don't include another 12 days taken off by German employees each year due 
to sickness, training and other leave entitlements.


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