Re:VW Strike in Slovakia Exposes a European Divide
by vetinari on Thursday August 24, 2017 @05:54PM
(#15094384)
>> So, Slovakian workers are now realizing their current leverage, they might actually receive raises, but soon auto companies will move on.
> Then they actually have no (sustainable) leverage at all.
They kind of have. To go any lower with the wages, the car companies would have go outside of EU - to Serbia or Ukraine, for example. Then, they would be hit by the import duties they themselves lobbied for.
So the workers can ask for such increase, that is still a bit below the costs of having it behind EU borders plus duties.
The trend of the plant operators is currently exactly the other way: they try to import workers from these cheaper countries. Undocumented, of course.
> Then they actually have no (sustainable) leverage at all.
They kind of have. To go any lower with the wages, the car companies would have go outside of EU - to Serbia or Ukraine, for example. Then, they would be hit by the import duties they themselves lobbied for.
So the workers can ask for such increase, that is still a bit below the costs of having it behind EU borders plus duties.
The trend of the plant operators is currently exactly the other way: they try to import workers from these cheaper countries. Undocumented, of course.