By JACK PHILLIPS

“University of B.C. vice-
president Charles Connaghan has
recommended sweeping changes
i labor-management relations
along the lines of the system that
lifted West Germany from
fconomic ruin to economic
Stability.” (News item, Vancouver
Sun, April 12, 1976).

Connaghan, who was president
of the Construction Labor
Relations Association before he
| assumed his position with the
| University of B.C., visited the
Federal Republic of Germany last
Summer in order to study labor-
Management relations and make a
report to the federal department of
labor in this country.

From its opening statement —
that labor management relations
In West Germany lifted that
Country from economic ruin to
€conomic stability — Connaghan’s
Study, as reported in the Sun, is
Open to challenge. The real
Situation in West Germany is
Considerably different from the
osy picture he presents.

Following World War II, Allied
decisions regarding the abolition of
Monopolies were never carried out
i the FRG and today, 50 leading
Corporations control nearly half
the productive capital with 15 of
them accounting for one-third of
the turnover of all industrial en-
terprises. The economy of the FRG
4S controlled by 200 families and 1.7
per cent of the population owns
More than 70 per cent of the
aggregate productive capital. In
1974, the net profit of the 100 major
Industrial corporations increased
by 147 per cent over 1966.

Economic development in the
FRG proceeded at a relatively
faster rate than in the other
Countries of Europe (except Italy)
and the United States for a number
of reasons peculiar to that country.
The defeat of Germany in the war
and the ensuing dislocation gave
Capitalists inthe FRG a pretext for
keeping wages at a comparatively
low level. Their position was
enhanced by the influx of 10 million

€rmans from lands returned to
other countries. Homeless and
Unemployed, these people were
Willing to work for whatever the
€mployers would offer. Behind
them came hundreds of thousands
of immigrant workers whose work

} bermits only got them the dirtiest,

ithe most unskilled and the lowest
Paid jobs.

Given the low wage costs and a
Teserve pool of cheap labor,
German industry was able to in-
Crease profits, provide new capital
for investments and improve its
Competitive position in foreign
Markets.

Substantial financial aid was

also provided by the United States
Which regarded the FRG as a
bulwark of its aggressive policy
toward the socialist community of
Nations. Another advantage was
the fact that the FRG had no
Military expenses prior to 1956.
_ The so-called economic miracle
Of West Germany was not the
Tesult of superior labor-
Management relations. On the
Contrary, the right-wing leadership
Of the trade union movement and
the Socialist Party, not without
Tesistance from the trade union
Membership (and that resistance
Continues) adapted the trade union
Movement to a system where
Wages are controlled without a
Ceiling on profits. The traditional
Name for such a policy is class
Collaboration.

Until the beginning of the 1960’s,
the FRG was in the group of
Capitalist states with the most
dynamic economies. In the period
1950-55, the Gross National Product
Mecreased at an average rate of 9.4
Per cent. By 1974, however, it had
_ dropped to 0.4 per cent, demon-
Strating that German capitalism is
Not immune to the inherent crisis
factors of world capitalism.

Belying claims of harmonious labor-management relations, workers
in West Germany have been vocal in their opposition to government
and monopoly policies. Here in a mass demonstration in Dortmund
last November, 50,000 workers and students march in support of

Labor relations in West Germany
no model for Canadian policies

In 1970, the FRG gave way to
Japan as the second industrial
power of the capitalist world. If we
followed Connaghan’s argument to
its logical conclusion; Japan’s
advance would have to be at-
tributed to superior labor-
management relations. But no one
in Japan, certainly no reputable
economist, has made such a claim.
What we see instead is what Lenin
described as the uneven
development of capitalism.

In the latter part of the 1960's,
there was a rapid concentration of
capital in the FRG through
mergers and takeovers in industry,
banking and the service spheres.
In the period 1970-74, there were
1,386 mergers compared with 341 in

CHARLES CONNAGHAN ...
his report masks the realities.

the years 1966 through 1969. Bet-
ween 1973 and 1974, three of these
mergers involved 50 of the leading
industrial monopolies. As a result,
9,000 small and medium firms
were driven into bankruptcy in
1975.

Concurrent with this process
went falling industrial output,
rising prices and — unem-
ployment. By the beginning of 1976,
two million people were totally or
partially unemployed.

Retail prices increased by an
average of 2.5 per cent in the
period from 1966 to 1970 and by six
per cent in 1971-75. Coincidentally,
Connaghan’s report tells us that
the construction industry settled
for a wage increase of only 6.6 per

cent and set the pattern for all
other industries.

At the same time, planned social
reforms designed to ease the
consequences of intensified ex-
ploitation by the monopolies are
being cut back or postponed in-
definitely in order to stimulate
profits.

For more than six years, the
government of the FRG has been
headed by Social Democrats. A
state which claims to be ‘“‘above
classes’’ has been unable to
prevent price increases or cope
with unemployment and _ un-
precedented layoffs. Municipal
councils dominated by Social
Democrats have virtually dropped
the old social democratic principle
that public transport and fees for
services must be kept relatively
low. Social reforms promised three
years ago have yet to be carried
out. It is against this background
that we must evaluate Con-
naghan’s report of his trip to the
FRG on behalf of the Trudeau
government.

Since Connaghan has proposed
that many aspects of collective
bargaining in the FRG be in-
corporated into the structure in
this country, some of them bear
examination:

e The closed shop, the union
shop and the Rand Formula as we

-know them in Canada are for-

bidden by law. Total trade union
membership is about 40 per cent of
those eligible.

e Negotiations for new
agreements are conducted at the
regional and national levels. Union
negotiators must have the power to
finalize a settlement and do not
have to return to the membership
for aratification vote. With pattern
bargaining the order of the day,
one group of negotiators ef-
fectively bargains for the whole
trade union movement.

e Works councils are elected at
every enterprise, but they are
junior partners of management
with no decisive voice in the major
issues. Strikes are forbidden
during the life of an agreement and
all unresolved issues go to a state
conciliation commission or a labor
court for binding arbitration. So-
called economic-managerial
matters, such as relocation or
closure of a plant, reduction in

demands for a greater voice

staff or introduction of new work
methods may be discussed by both
parties but management, by law,
has the exclusive right to make the
final decision.

e Trade unions, as distinct from
the elected work councils, have no
legal rights at the enterprise level.
The works council, as defined by
law, is the bargaining and
grievance authority at the place of
work.’ There is no official
recognition of shop stewards and
plant committees.

The much-advertised  co-
determination is designed to make
the workers minor partners, with
major decision-making and profits
reserved for the employers. In the
coal and steel enterprises the
works councils elect representa-
tives to the board of directors and
to management. In other en-
terprises, they have no representa-
tion at the management level.
However, in neither case do
workers’ representatives have
veto power over management.

The trade union movement is
currently demanding the adoption
of postponed legislation that would
give the workers a more decisive

— Unsere Zeit photo

in detision making,. for greater
opportunities for apprenticeship training and for policies to end
unemployment. At lower centre is the banner of the Deutscher
Gewerkschaftsbund(DGB), the West German Confederation of Labor.

voice in co-determination. But the
Socialist Party, which heads the
government, is resisting their
demand.

Broad segments of the trade
union movement and the left wing
of the Socialist Party are
demanding nationalization of the
large banks, insurance companies
and industrial concerns. They also
want direct control by the state of
private investments and the
establishment of a system of state
economic planning that would take
social requirements into account.

A similar policy orientation,
based on the Canadian reality, is in
order for the Canadian labor
movement. Chuck Connaghan
didn’t have to go to West Germany
to discover that class collaboration
policies are good for big business.
We've seen that in North America
these past hundred years. What we
have in Germany is class
collaboration with a new twist —
and blessed by right-wing social
democracy. The German workers
have learned the hard way that it is

,a dead-end policy. Canadian
workers are not likely to accept it
on Connaghan’s say-so — or

anyone else’s.

Launch world drive
for Spanish amnesty

The World Peace Council has
launched an international cam-
paign for immediate amnesty for
the 2,000 or more democrats who
continue to languish in Spanish
prisons. :

Among political prisoners in
Spain are members of political
parties, trade unions, religious
organizations, the peace
movement, youth and women’s
organizations. Among them are

Socialists, Social Democrats,
Communists, Radicals” and
Liberals.

Instead of responding to the
demand for amnesty, the Spanish
authorities have benned amnesty
demonstrations and have arrested
scores of leaders of the amnesty
movement, including the president
of the Spanish Peace Movement,

Juan Antonio Bardem, an in-
ternationally known film director.

Romesh Chandra, secretary-
general of the World Peace
Council, cabled the Spanish prime
minister expressing ‘‘extreme
indignation” at the arbitrary
arrest and detention of Bardem
and other Spanish democrats. The
cable demands »+‘‘immediate
release of Bardem and all political
prisoners, general amnesty and
restoration — of democratic
freedoms for the people of Spain.”

The World Peace Council has
called on all organizations and
individuals who have throughout
the years supported the struggle of
Spanish democrats to rally behind
‘their fight today for the right to

hdld meetings to demand amnesty,

See LAUNCH pg. 12

PACIFIC TRIBUNE-—APRIL 23, 1976—Page 3