the historically interesting bit is, that the German welfare state has emerged out of the 19th century paternalistic capitalism / industrialisation.
Thus Arbeitgeber (employers) are those “granting” work and Arbeitnehmers are those “gratefully” receiving work. Thus reflecting a serious power imbalance.
There are those in Germany who argue that unions such as IGM (who have statutory representation on company boards) have gone to the other side and sold out the workers by only focusing on large employers with a large unionised workforce. While a growing section of the population works in casual / temporary jobs–which systematically tries to exclude them from the legal agreements negotiated by the unions.
The interesting figure in relation to German employment is the changing number of workers who are employed by large companies with union representation. I.e. the growing casual / part time work force…
So IGM fighting for 28 hrs is interesting, but ignoring that less and less workers will benefit from union protection might also be worthwhile.
