> I'm glad I don't have some union telling me I can only work 28 hours a week.

There's always a guy that comments without reading the article. Don't be that guy.

No, I'm a guy who lives in the US and knows how unions in the US are.

And you clearly don't know how the unions in Germany are, so why are you even commenting?

It sounds like the shift to 28 hours would be voluntary and only last up to two years for those who choose it.

The important context here is that in Germany you already have a right to reduced hours. You just don't have a right to getting your old hours back. This is important because the hours might very well have been given to other employees, permanently hurting your income and/or your career. (unless you find a different employer) Hence many new parents not daring to ask for reduced hours. This new demand/proposal by the union would result in a similar "re-employment guarantee" as those new parents who stop working completely for a number of months get already.

I mean currently it doesn't matter. We're always asked to up our contract to 40h again. The only question is if you go part time and then a crisis hits. In that case employers would be reluctant to bring you back up.

This crosses into personal attack, which is not allowed on HN. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't post like this again.

> I bet you are a white anglo-saxon republican, who has a lot to loose (or at least thinks he has a lot to loose).

I guess racism is fine when directed at a supposed white person. Amazing that you can determine a person's race based solely on their opinion, and even more amazing that you found it relevant.

And what if he/she isn't white? Does that make his/her thinking wrong? Did he/she step off the plantation? Why is a person's ethnicity at all relevant here? Should we all declare our skin colors in our profile so you can properly analyze our arguments based on your prejudice?