A General Motors works council’s response to the capitalist global financial crisis

A case study from Germany

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7706574
AutoresThomas Klikauer (0000-0002-0315-3198, Western Sydney University, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume36
Fascículo2
Páginas303-322
Data de publicação2012-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCapital & Class (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0309-8168 • E-ISSN: 2041-0980
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0309816812437924
OpenAlexW1989921010
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas50

The 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC) has negatively impacted on banks, financial institutions and companies such as General Motors (GM), bringing the latter’s European subsidiary close to insolvency and highlighting some of the US car manufacturer’s long-term problems, which were solved through a partial takeover by the US government. In Germany, GM’s strongest presence in Europe, the company had a close encounter with bankruptcy in the spring of 2009, narrowly averted when the sale of GM’s Opel subsidiary (GMO) was actively sought. This paper is about the conflict between one company’s management and one works council, in one location. The empirical field research focuses exclusively on the position of GMO’s works council, reporting its views and perspectives on GMO’s management and the GFC. On this basis, two arguments are presented: first, that the relevance of GMO’s works council was reflective of a version of capitalism that has been associated with the model of a ‘coordinated market economy’ (CME) rather than an Anglo-Saxon model of a ‘liberal market economy’ (LME); and second, that despite the eventual cancellation of the sale of GMO by GM-USA (2010), the case highlights how key labour actors coordinated their activities in order to prevent GMO’s bankruptcy

Bankruptcy · Business · Capitalism · Economics · Economy · Financial crisis · Insolvency · Market economy · Political science · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Accounting · Finance