Unions and Business doing well in…Germany.

The myth unions had anything to do with slowing down our economy, job losses or corporate uncertainty, is starting to be revealed as a big honkin' lie. Even so, Republicans continue to sound awfully convincing, that they know something no one else knows. But voters are getting the gut feel that something wrong, especially when they read that corporations have never been more profitable, yet no jobs or higher wages.

Let’s start with the Forbes articles title:

“How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much”

Nuff said? Well, here are the details anyway:

In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million … At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car companies, BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen, are very profitable

The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that “the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”

According to Horst Mund, of IG Metallpoints, the auto union in Germany, this goes against all mainstream wisdom of the neo-liberals. We have strong unions, we have strong social security systems, we have high wages. So, if I believed what the neo-liberals are arguing, we would have to be bankrupt, but apparently this is not the case. Despite high wages . . . despite our possibility to influence companies, the economy is working well in Germany.

European American Business Council, puts it, union-management relations in the U.S. are “adversarial,” whereas in Germany they’re “collaborative.”