The Ostriches of Germany

If I stay long enough in this country, I may well lose all of my sentimentality about labor unions.

Spiegel reports that the Chairman of the German Labor Federation (DGB), Michael Sommer, has taken a hard line against any changes in Germany's extraordinary job-protection laws. He baldly asserts that creating greater labor flexibility for businesses (i.e. making it easier to fire people) will not create a single new job.

This sounds like the politics of self-destruction. German companies are moving their operations not just to low-wage places like China, but to developed countries whose main advantage is flexible labor laws -- Hungary, Ireland, the United States. It's hard to see how German unions are protecting the little guy, particularly in places with 18% unemployment. Perhaps there won't be mass layoff, but good jobs will continue slithering away. The happy, protected, highly skilled workers who remain will be more and more of a privileged elite.

The unions are also rejecting any effort to raise the retirement age to 67. So there's no stopping the German worker when he wants to work -- or when it's time to quit. Never mind that people are living longer and healthier lives than when these laws were created, or that the nation simply can't afford to pay for the pensions that are currently scheduled. Any politician who stands between the German geezer and his Mallorca beachhouse is likely to get crushed.