Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
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KATHRIN REFERENCES LITERATUR LOER<br />
with OEMs during the last years showed that<br />
the sites in Osnabrück and Rheine tried to<br />
compete with factories in Central and Eastern<br />
Europe (e.g. with Györ in Hungary / Audi).<br />
From an external perspective it is not possible<br />
to judge whether the wage conditions and<br />
production costs have been the most important<br />
and decisive criteria.<br />
The changes and problems described have<br />
serious impacts on the industrial relations:<br />
Workers’ councils are increasingly forced to<br />
accept conditions that they would not have<br />
accepted in former times. The threat to start new<br />
production sites at cheaper locations, especially<br />
in CEE, with cheaper labour determines the<br />
strategy of the workers’ council. Staggered,<br />
but similar to the changes in the company’s<br />
management, the leaders in the workers’<br />
council have been replaced and bargaining<br />
routines have differed. Now, technical, skilled<br />
staff represents the workforce and has been<br />
transformed to a “co-management” without<br />
strong negotiation power. The downward<br />
tendency of the company has intensified the<br />
feeling of being powerless in terms of ensuring<br />
employment.<br />
4.4 Case Study 2.<br />
Magna Steyr in Graz is an affiliate of the<br />
Austro-Canadian mega-supplier “Magna<br />
International”. The company has a long history<br />
but changed its name: it was well known as<br />
“Steyr Puch” in former times. Originally<br />
founded as an arms manufacturer in 1864,<br />
it transitioned to a bicycle producer. Later,<br />
Puch was specialised in the production of<br />
motorcycles in 1901 shortly before it entered<br />
the automobile-manufacturing sector in 1904.<br />
After a merger with the German automobile<br />
company “Daimler” in 1928, the company<br />
was named “Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG” (since<br />
1935) and started to assemble vehicles ordered<br />
by different European automobile companies<br />
after the Second World War. In 1999, the<br />
Canadian Corporation “Magna International”<br />
took the majority of shares – meanwhile,<br />
Magna Steyr reached comparatively high<br />
volumes and was very successful with new<br />
contracts from a wide spectrum of OEMs.<br />
The Austrian contract manufacturer looks<br />
back on a long time tradition. Similar to its<br />
German competitor, it has strong regional<br />
roots but, likewise, records quite a few<br />
changes regarding the ownership structure. The<br />
interviews showed that, particularly during<br />
the last decades, the continuity of the Austrian<br />
management (as well the Canadian corporate<br />
management in persona Frank Stronach)<br />
and a quite flexible way of bargaining and<br />
finding specific solutions with the workers’<br />
council and trade union form the framework<br />
for (new) strategies. This might be part of a<br />
“secret recipe”. Stemming from a “coordinated<br />
market economy”, strong industrial relations<br />
can be expected – but the way of negotiation,<br />
the bargaining method and interrelationship of<br />
politics, associations, corporate organizations and<br />
management executives might be characterized<br />
with “high flexibility”, pragmatism, and the<br />
ability to agree upon package deals.<br />
Magna Steyr thoroughly continued<br />
to maintain long time partnerships<br />
and cooperation with international<br />
OEMs but was never very much<br />
interwoven with one or more OEMs 6 .<br />
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