Matters Get Hot At PSA
If GM wants to know what will happen when things get tough at its Opel plants, all it has to do is ask partner PSA. Workers at PSA’s doomed Aulnay plant “face jeers and threats, as well as eggs and other objects hurled by striking colleagues protesting against the shutdown and Peugeot’s restructuring plans,” as Reuters reports from the frontlines.
The two-week-old standoff between union pickets and the workers they brand as scabs “may only be a foretaste of more clashes to come as unions steeped in a culture of conflict fight restructuring plans,” the wire service writes.
Out of a total 3,000 workers, management says only 260 are striking, while the CGT union says it is up to 500. Several hundred more simply call in sick.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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According to the story, no one is going to be unemployed; they are all going to be transferred or offered jobs at other companies. Seems like the CGT is doing this because it beats working.
Quaint Europeans.... when our time comes, Americans won't do the scab-bashing thing. We'll just have some Designated Wackos stroll in and shoot managers. Wish I was kidding.
A friend of mine contends that Europeans have been warlike, fighting outsiders and each other for various reasons, for over 2,000 years, and the "peaceful" transformation since 1945 is fake. He contends that when the latest "Concert of Europe" breaks down, the true nature of Europeans will be revealed, and all hell will break loose. He recommends that, instead of going over there a third time, we should stock up on butter and popcorn and just watch. It's the labor events like this (and soccer hooligans) that make me suspect he's right.