German manufacturing companies have a reputation for high wages and good labor relations. That may be justified at home, when labor unions are strong and labor rights are established by law. It doesn’t necessarily apply to their operations in the USA.
Chris Brooks, writing in Labor News, wrote about how Volkwagen manages its Tennessee plant on the theory that workers are most productive when pushed to their physical limits.
At the Chattanooga plant, permanent employees work alongside “temporary” workers, some of whom have actually worked there for years. Pitted against one another, both groups fear to speak up.
Workers are routinely pushed to their physical and emotional breaking points. From management’s point of view, this maximizes productivity.
“Every employee there busts their ass and is injured and is working through the pain because they don’t want their job taken by a temp,” Amanda says. “It is made clear to all of us that we are easy to replace.”
That’s lean production in a nutshell: ruthless efficiency, produced by a system of efficient ruthlessness. Workers are deliberately stretched to their limits, by a combination of competitive pressure, inadequate training, repetitive stress, and rotating shifts—so that the weakest links can be identified and eliminated.
Phil Ebersole's Blog 