logo
  • Nonprofit News
  • Management
    • Boards and Governance
    • Communication
      • Framing & Narratives
    • Ethics
    • Financial Management
    • Grassroots Fundraising Journal
    • Leadership
    • Technology
  • Philanthropy
    • Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Donor-Advised Funds
    • Foundations
    • Impact Investing
    • Research
    • Workplace Giving
  • Policy
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Housing
    • Government
    • Taxes
  • Economic Justice
    • About
    • Economy Remix
    • Economy Webinars
    • Community Benefits
    • Economic Democracy
    • Environmental Justice
    • Fair Finance
    • Housing Rights
    • Land Justice
    • Poor People’s Rights
    • Tax Fairness
  • Racial Equity
  • Social Movements
    • Community Development
    • Community Organizing
    • Culture Change
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Gender Equality
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Indigenous Rights
    • Labor
    • LGBTQ+
    • Racial Justice
    • Youth Activism
  • About Us
  • Log in
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Featured Articles
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Tiny Spark Podcast
  • Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Leading Edge Membership
Donate
Labor, Management, Policy

Germans Seek to Use Tech Gains to Free Up Time—Will the US Ever Follow?

Cyndi Suarez
February 6, 2018
Tweet22
Share21
Share9
Email

By Frank Vincentz (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
February 1, 2018; Inverse

There’s a growing debate in Europe about how workers can take advantage of technological advances that increase productivity rates to redefine “the future of work.” Its proponents argue that companies have hoarded these advantages for too long; facing a future that is likely to require fewer workers (what with increased automation and artificial intelligence), now is a good time to balance the scales.

A series of warning strikes rippled across Germany last month, and by January 27th, “nearly a million workers from more than 4,500 companies had walked out…for a few hours at a time,” according to Inverse’s Eileen Guo. Then, on January 31st, Germany released its latest unemployment numbers: 5.4 percent, the lowest since reunification in 1990. That same day, a series of 24-hour strikes launched.

Guo writes, “Citing Germany’s strong economic growth, as well as increasing social responsibilities of workers outside of their jobs, IG Metall was asking for a six percent increase in wages and the right to temporarily reduce weekly hours from 35 to 28, with the right to return to full-time work after two years.”

The powerful IG Metall labor union represents 3.9 million German metal and electrical engineering workers. Sophie Jaenicke, of IG Metall’s Collective Bargaining Department, tells Inverse, “The real working time of employees is much longer than the collectively agreed working time. The employers have many possibilities to prolong working hours, but employees do not have possibilities to reduce their working time in the same way.”

So far, employers have offered a two-percent wage increase and a one-time payment of €200 ($239), but not a shorter work week. IG Metall chief Joerg Hofmann vows to increase the pressure.

This is not confined to Germany’s private sector. The public service workers union DBB will ask “for a ‘significant’ salary hike and a decrease in working hours from 41 to 39.” Meanwhile, its largest service sector union, Verdi, is calling for a six-percent salary increase and the option to trade salary for additional time off.

As in the US, the German government “has indicated that providing better protections for workers…is on its agenda.” However, Rutgers University-based US economist Jennifer Hunt says, “The whole tenor of the debate in the US is completely different” due to comparably weaker unions. In the US, the focus is on more flexibility to advance work-life balance. Organizations like the Freelancers’ Union and 1 Million for Work Flexibility are fighting for their members to have more choice in determining things like working schedules and remote work.

Some see this as the purview of “well-to-do folks,” like the Silicon Valley workers whose employers offer “work arrangements that range from the standard 40-hour weeks condensed into longer but fewer days, office-wide working retreats, unlimited vacations, remote working opportunities, and even paid sabbaticals accrued just like time off.”

In the US, we’re selling workers’ demands for flexibility as not only beneficial personally to workers, but as profitable for companies. Emma Plumb, the director of 1 Million for Work Flexibility, says, “Our message is that for organizations and employees to be more productive and successful, it’s crucial to look beyond the traditional in-office, 9-to-5 workplace norm.”

However, experiments indicate that this is not the best frame for worker demands. Guo writes, “When Utah implemented its four-day work-week in 2008 for state employees, it abruptly ended the program three years later, saying that the move’s projected savings never materialized. A recent experiment in Sweden was also canceled because the cost outweighed the benefits.” For whom, one could ask?

Guo concludes, “The technological advances are speeding up, but the unified efforts of labor have disappeared for most American workers. Perhaps this explains, at least in part, why the work week has not changed for nearly 75 years.”

While the work of nonprofits seems to always be on the rise, perhaps it’s time for us to stop and think about the nature of work itself and how it overlaps with the societal values we seek. If we can’t create the world we want for ourselves, how can we create it for anyone else? What do you think? How can nonprofits help to redefine the future of work?—Cyndi Suarez

Tweet22
Share21
Share9
Email

About The Author
Cyndi Suarez

Cyndi Suarez is Co-President and Editor in Chief at NPQ. She is the author of "The Power Manual: How to Master Complex Power Dynamics," in which she outlines a new theory and practice of power. She has worked as a strategy and innovation consultant with a focus on networks and platforms for social movements. She studied Feminist Theory and organizational development for social change.

Related
Two-Thirds of Those in Frontline Jobs in VA Lack Sick Leave
By Ruth McCambridge
December 11, 2020
In Union, There is Strength: How Our Union Benefits Our Nonprofit’s Mission
By Juli Adhikari, Thomas Waldrop and Malkie Wall
September 22, 2020
Climate Crisis Exposes Modern Slavery
By Sofia Jarrin
September 16, 2020
The Cost of Inequality: $42,000 per Median US Worker
By Steve Dubb
September 16, 2020
Labor Day 2020: Solidarity Emerges on the Field of Play
By Steve Dubb
September 7, 2020
A Fascinating Resource for Fans of Nonprofit Organizational Development
By Ruth McCambridge
August 6, 2020

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
January 21, 2 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Health, Racial Disparities, and Economic Justice

other posts by The Author
A Cult of Democracy—Toward a Pluralistic Politics
By Cyndi Suarez
January 7, 2021
What Does It Look Like to Support Women of Color to Lead?
By Cyndi Suarez
January 4, 2021
Sheila E.: On Creativity and Voice in Social Change
By Cyndi Suarez
November 10, 2020
CYNDI SUAREZ
The Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap: Flipping the Lens
Powerful Interests Seek to Make Puerto Rico the Hong Kong of the...
Moving Beyond the Privilege of White Tears
logo
Donate
  • About
  • Contact
  • Newsletters
  • Write for NPQ
  • Advertise
  • Writers