Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant • Hacker News Board

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#91

Post by rebootthesystem » Wed, Mar 29, 2017, 10:29 PM UTC

Radle wrote: post #78

This is absolutely why German unions are awesome, read this: "Labor leaders at Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) luxury Audi brand have asked top management to assign production of an all-electric model to the carmaker's main plant in Germany, concerned they might lose out as electric cars gain in importance." The reason for the Union speaking out is twofold: The workers want to have the necessary skill set in building EV and…

Yes, American unions are very destructive. They have devastated industries by sapping the very last bit of juice out of them. German unions have a cooperative relationship with the business. They understand that killing it off isn't an intelligent strategy.

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#92

Post by caminante » Thu, Mar 30, 2017, 9:57 AM UTC

cmarschner wrote: post #86

caminante wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany has a lot of govt. financed/controlled businesses. Lower Saxony (German state) has 20% voting control of Volkswagen, Audi's parent company. There are also anti-takeover restrictions such as shareholder ownership caps.

>Germany has a lot of govt. financed/controlled businesses. Examples, apart from VW and Deutsche Bahn? After privatization of the Kohl era there shouldn't be much left. When I was a kid I even drank milk from a state-owned dairy plant.

Here you go! [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-owned_enterprise#Germany

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#93

Post by crdoconnor » Thu, Mar 30, 2017, 1:33 PM UTC

velodrome wrote: post #90

cat199 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is absolutely why German unions are awesome curious: What about this is specific to German unions?

1) Germany did not have a minimum wage until recently. They just enacted a minimum wage in 2015. Minimum wage erodes the strength and bargaining power of trade unions. Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Sweden do not have a minimum wage but have strong trade unions. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28140594 http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080515/5-deve... 2) They have strong apprenticeship prog…

>Minimum wage erodes the strength and bargaining power of trade unions.

Trade unions are almost always in favor of minimum wage and increases. E.g.

http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Jobs-and-Economy/Wages-and-Inco...

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#94

Post by cmarschner » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 7:30 AM UTC

caminante wrote: post #92

cmarschner wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Germany has a lot of govt. financed/controlled businesses. Examples, apart from VW and Deutsche Bahn? After privatization of the Kohl era there shouldn't be much left. When I was a kid I even drank milk from a state-owned dairy plant.

Here you go! [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-owned_enterprise#Germany

That doesn't seem to be excessive? I find it a pretty short list of names that are just quite highly visible. It's mostly enterprises that provide some form of public good (infrastructure).

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#95

Post by caminante » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 2:50 PM UTC

cmarschner wrote: post #94

caminante wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here you go! [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-owned_enterprise#Germany

That doesn't seem to be excessive? I find it a pretty short list of names that are just quite highly visible. It's mostly enterprises that provide some form of public good (infrastructure).

It's not an exhaustive list. At that, IMHO, it's too general to say these firms (sampled) produce public goods (i.e. nonrivalrous and nonexcludable). For example, I don't get the benefits from intermodal shipping via Hapag-Lloyd without paying.

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#96

Post by gatsby99 » Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 6:36 PM UTC

rajathagasthya wrote: post #35

S_A_P wrote: post #9

As a former Audi owner, I wonder if the "audi service position" will be applicable to their electric cars. Tangental I know, but I would be curious to know if they will make their cars easier/cheaper to service. I never really had much trouble with my A4, but maintenance costs upwards of 1k per 6 months(I was driving a lot of miles at the time) turned me off to the ownership experience.

1k per 6 months of maintenance costs? If you don't mind answering, what kind of maintenance was it that you had to do every 6 months?

I have an audi a4 2012 and the maintance cost is no where like that. It is 400 $ every 24 th month.

Re: Audi's unions demand electric model for main German plant

#97

Post by velodrome » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

crdoconnor wrote: post #93

velodrome wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Germany did not have a minimum wage until recently. They just enacted a minimum wage in 2015. Minimum wage erodes the strength and bargaining power of trade unions. Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Sweden do not have a minimum wage but have strong trade unions. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28140594 http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080515/5-deve... 2) They have strong apprenticeship prog…

>Minimum wage erodes the strength and bargaining power of trade unions. Trade unions are almost always in favor of minimum wage and increases. E.g. http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Jobs-and-Economy/Wages-and-Inco...

Why Unions Exempt Themselves from Hard-Fought Minimum Wage Hikes

https://economics21.org/html/why-unions-exempt-themselves-ha...