BuskersTooVille
As Cory Doctorow notes, massive multinational corporations are vulnerable because, eventually, we will all come to hate them and then, hopefully, we will all, using our various ways and means, decide to do something about them.
Interestingly, that appears already be happening, at least in part, to a certain multinational car company.
First, in Germany:
Second, in the United States:
Feel the bile rising?
Well, take a big gulp and relax, because here comes the kicker - which is that the workers' representatives in Alabama are attempting to make German law work for them as well:
Gosh.
As Cory Doctorow notes, massive multinational corporations are vulnerable because, eventually, we will all come to hate them and then, hopefully, we will all, using our various ways and means, decide to do something about them.
Interestingly, that appears already be happening, at least in part, to a certain multinational car company.
First, in Germany:
...In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, which bans large corporations with a German presence from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers...
Second, in the United States:
...(I)n the USA, Mercedes has a preference for building its cars in the American South, the so-called "right to work" states where US labor law is routinely flouted and unions are thin on the ground...
{snip}
...(However, w)orkers at Mercedes' factory in Vance, Alabama are trying to join the UAW (United Auto Workers), and Mercedes is playing dirty, using the tried-and-true union-busting tactics that have held workplace democracy at bay for decades...
Feel the bile rising?
Well, take a big gulp and relax, because here comes the kicker - which is that the workers' representatives in Alabama are attempting to make German law work for them as well:
...(T)he UAW has also filed a complaint with BAFA, the German regulator in charge of the Supply Chain Act, seeking penalties against Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
That's a huge deal, because the German Supply Chain Act goes hard. If Mercedes is convicted of union-busting in Alabama, its German parent-company faces a fine of 2% of its global total revenue, and will no longer be eligible to sell products to the German government...
Gosh.
Being accountable in one jurisdiction means that you just might have to be accountable in all jurisdictions?
Imagine that new world capitalist overlord-less order!
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Mr. Doctorow's musings show up over there on the left sidebar (for phone users switch to 'Web Version' - the link is at the bottom of the post)...I strongly suggest you have a look at his stuff regularly.
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Mr. Doctorow's musings show up over there on the left sidebar (for phone users switch to 'Web Version' - the link is at the bottom of the post)...I strongly suggest you have a look at his stuff regularly.
Sub-Header under the image at the top of the post?...Bigger E. knows what I'm talking about.
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7 comments:
Since I dumped Facebook it is your eclectic blog roll I most often access on my short sawmill breaks.
It is laws like this, that will change the way major international corporations operate, but it will never happen in the USA or Canada, where the lucrative lobbying system, spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually buying politicians, media, and alike.
Despite claims to the opposite, Canada has extremely weak labour laws and except for government unions or criminally run unions, the worker is all but left on his own. Good labour law negates the need for strong unions, but we do not have, nor will not have.
Our entire economic system is based on cheap labour and why Canada is bringing in millions of immigrants to sling chips at fast food outlets, to reduce costs to multinationals.
The entire economic platform that we live in, is nothing but a house of cards, balancing on cheap labour. Remove one card and....................
Beer!
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But if enough unions leverage good laws in other places...?
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I hope this goes through. I know that S.C. has been fighting the Unions for years. VW also has a plant there that's been trying to unionize. UNION YES! https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2023/03/06/uaw-vw-scout-motors-south-carolina/69978582007/
That is a riot. Can't get justice in the U.S.A., complain in Germany. I do hope the workers achieve their goals. If they do, it would be fun to see how far this can go.
I learnt about the "right to work" laws in the U.S.A. back in the very early 70s. There were 5 of them at that time. They had lower income, lower education standards, the list went on.
Things could change in Canada. We have a Constitution and Human Rights Tribunals. Canada also has a limit on how much can be spent by political parties during an election. The U.S.A. does not and there is so much money floating around in politics, they could probably pay for health care for aHll its citizens
However if PP is elected, expect him to try to remove rights. When he was part of Harper's gang, the first thing Harper did was defund the majority of Women's groups. He and PP and gang then moved on to pass 9 pieces of federal legislation, they were told would violate our Constituion. Harper went ahead, passed it all. Then a series of nice lawyers went to the Supreme Court of Canada and had all 9 over turned. Part of the problem in the U.S.A. is the Supreme Court isn't that Supreme, just a bunch of political appointees to ensure the right wingers and corporations get their way. Our Supreme court requires judges to have specific expertise and come from specific geographical areas. i.e. game rules dictate there has to be a Judge from Quebec with Maritime law as a specialty.
The problem with "Human Rights" is that it has been turned into a politcal weapon. Instead of one law for all, we niche laws for niche segments of Canada.
The "Human Rights" tribunal or whatever one calls it, is now seen as a money maker for the complainant. It exists, instead of laws to protect people, we have a tribunal of politcal appointees wanting to get even with someone.
We can dress it up all we want but in reality they are a political weapon.
The real issue is the lack of good labour law.
When I was living in the UK the 1980 a relative was getting a job and she had to fill out a 3 page contract of what she was expected to do and what she would not be asked to do...............all this for being a receptionist at a local car dealership! One of her duties was to make tea, two times a day.
In Germany, the same applies only in much stronger terms.
In Canada, none of this happens and we get deaths annually from people doing jobs they were ill qualified to do.
I family experience certainly shows that, where my 18 year old son was asked to drive a grossly over loaded truck from one store to another and promptly dropped his load on the highway. He knew nothing of loading trucks, he did not have a commercial license but he was orwdered by management to drive the damn thing. An absolute absence of law to protect workers.
The complete absence of worker law, except for the basics, by government has lead to politcal courts and biased decisions based on the politics of the day.
Blame the right all you want but the NDP are just as guilty as the rest.
And note this well, if I was in charge (god-forbid) I would make illegal dealing with any company doing business in US states that denies unions and abortions, one is necessary and the other a human right.
Forget all the puffery about the two Pierres, the NDP do not have clean hands as well, we need strong labour law.
Thanks for the link AnonAbove--
I very much agree that the Conversation is a site worth visiting with some regularity...It's got all the 'think' without all (or at least most) of the 'tank'.
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