BANNERS:
French workers protest in Marseille against high unemployment and planned labour reforms.
At 8:30 a.m. last Monday a time when most Germans were still digesting the news that their national elections the previous day had ended in stalemate a group of about 50 car mechanics clutching banners staged a 2-hr. protest on the grounds of an Iveco truck plant in Hamburg. Their gripe: local auto dealers were trying to force them to work an additional 2 hr., 30 min. per month. The work stoppage received almost no attention locally, let alone nationally. Yet it speaks volumes about the shifting nature of attitudes toward work in Germany, and throughout...
