Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

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