Comments by "Xyz Same" (@xyzsame4081) on "Bernie Confronts Walmart Executives At Annual Meeting" video.
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Yes but the worker's representation at the borad of directors it is a paper tiger ! As you should know if you are from Germany. VW had a scandal a few years ago. - The workers board members being at the board of directors does not hinder the companies to hire new workers via subcontractors only (that suppresses wages).
Obama could have tied the the bailout of the banks and the car industry to giving the WHOLE staff voting rights (but the right would be tied to employment and it would be a trust. So people that leave the company could not take shares with them or sell them or pass them on to their heirs.
In Germany such rights are availabe ONLY to some "elected" representatives of the workers. In Germany in the large companies these are almost always big shots in the Social Democratic Party / the unions (what is left of them).
They play nice with the neoliberal consensus. They are retreating, they still protect the workers IN their company - but only those that have the good contracts from before the mid 1990s (before the reforms of Schroeder). It used to be that unions looked at the larger picture, now they focus on their company only and there only on those who are directly employed by the company. Which is a shrinking number.
Big Biz learns: Divide and conquer. And nothing like a "left" politician to screw the workers. Schroeder could get things passed that Kohl could not push through.
The owners and their managers would prefer to not have the workers representatives at the board of directors. But that rule came after WW2 ** and would be hard to abolish. It does not really matter, the bosses can easily navigate that little inconveniance, it does not REALLY give the workers any power !
The 2nd best solution for big biz is to bribe the worker's representatives. It is only a small number that needs to be corrupted or at least nudged to arrange themselves (very comfortably for their personal finances) without much ado. It helps that many of them might want to pursue a political career at some point, that gives big biz extra leverage over them.
VW had a scandal, board members (incl. workers representatives) were invited to events abroad, fancy locations, strippers included. They get much higher salaries than regular workers, they get the dedicated parking space next to the CEO, .... Even if they are not outright bribed, their compliance (in most cases and if it is not too obvious for the workers) is secured by letting them in into the club.
If the whole body of workers would vote on important decision (or could enforce a meeting) - voting directly and everyone has the same voting power - not indirectly and being dependent on "representatives" - that worker representation thing would work much better. Or if they have a rotating selection WHO sits on the board it would be better as well.
** the rich industrial players by and large were lucky, they had made big money by financing the rise of the Nazis. The Nazis took care of their orders and suppressed wages for them (yes everyone had work, but with free unions in a democracy that would have meant better wages and therefore less profits).
Big Biz in Germany was again treated very leniently by the allied forces. but for some time they had to shut up in the public debate about how the country and the economy should be run (they just pocketed the profits of the post war recovery).
The population knew about their role in Nazi Germany. The rich industrial leaders KNEW that Hitler intended to go to war (the population did not get the info in the campaigns from 1928 - 1932). And while the conservative parties did not form a coaltion with the ugly party with 35 % - I guess the base was not having it - no doubt the rich and powerful in the background made sure the minority government got all the support they needed for the power grab by those party "representatives" anyway.
The power grab of the Nazis was not a violent coup, for that they would have needed the military. The small army that Germany was allowed to have then and the many veterans had good standing in society and listened to the "conservative" opinion leaders and the upper class. W/o their collusion the silent / adminstrative coup would not have worked.
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