Danger to peace:
Job Loss – Despair – Violence
Siemens talks
differently than it acts
Heinrich v. Pierer, President and
Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG, said on the 15th of April to the UN
Security Council that “one of the central source of conflict is hopelessness,
or the feeling or being excluded from growing prosperity and from the benefits
of globalization, and of being overwhelmed by a process that one cannot
influence. Those fears, those desperate outlooks, lead to desolation and
anarchy. People who have nothing to lose become unpredictable and capable of
any deed. We have to counteract those trends by giving people hope and a way
out of their situation – not only for a brief moment, but on a sustainable
basis.”
We fully agree to this statement. But, what happens in Germany?
Siemens forces job reduction on contempt of law and human respects
German labour legislation requires to take into account social aspects
such as age, the employee’s maintenance obligation etc. Knowingly Siemens has
dismissed employees without considering these aspects. This disrespect of
German law is confirmed by court. In Munich, the employees have won all law
suits, over a hundred up to now. Moreover, handicapped people, senior workers,
who are protected against dismissal are suppressed, separated from their
colleagues, discriminated, mobbed, have to stay at work without having anything
to do, or they have been assigned a job much below their skills. All those
actions are done to demoralize people, to force them to sign a termination,
which will lead them directly to unemployment and dole-money. The consequences
are hopelessness, depressions, aggressiveness, and the danger of violence.
Especially, the latter is a perceivable risk for children and youth, who are
excluded from social life, from special education because of lack of money.
Nip Things in the Bud – stop job and social reduction
Siemens is one of the richest companies in Germany. There is no economic
need to make people jobless. Siemens forces
job reduction only to maximize profit irrespective to the needs of people.
They break down protection laws and social standards
in co-operation with policy, and justify those actions with the need of having
a flexible labour market. Flexible means: Less people work more hours for less
money, becoming itinerant employees. They can be hired and fired according to
the company’s need without having any protection. The world is divided in
people having a job and people not having a job, and everybody who has a job is
forced to do everything, a company wants, to keep the job. They work, although
they are ill. They work unsocial hours without getting money, only to bring
work off for fear of being a low performer. Being that causes job loss. And in
spite of doing everything within human power for the company in order to keep
the job, an employee reaching the age of about 40 runs the risk to be dismissed
and most probably he will never get a new employment with another company to
make a living from – he is too old. This will also compromise the freedom of
opinion: People will stop saying what they think, because saying anything against
the company means: dismissal - job loss.
On the other hand, there are the growing group of
unemployed people. Loss of job means
social exclusion, means that people can no longer participate at normal life,
cannot consume. Social exclusion leads to neglect, resignation, callousness,
aggression against people having economic status, disaffirmation of democracy
and state. This leads easily to violence, to terrorism, danger of dictatorship
increases.
Peace in Germany, in Europe, in USA, exists for about
60 years, because of having a social welfare. For most people a secure
existence has been reality. Freedom of opinion, a democratic base, public and
independent adjudication, protect freedom and peace. Live has been calculable.
But now society is going to change: Social security is
displaced by economic profits, justified with constraints of the world market.
Mass dismissals, unemployment, poverty, having no prospects for future. And
people having no future, people, having nothing to lose, who do not get a
hearing, will make themselves heard: Our press is full of news reporting about
acts of violence. In the end, drawing off social security by producing mass
unemployment for increasing profit, like Siemens does in Germany, will lead to
a danger for our democracy, which should not be underestimated. That’s not our
political aim. We do not want to support the downwards spiral: job loss –
hopelessness – violence, only for profit of some few global companies.
“We have to counteract those trends by giving people hope and a way out
of their situation”, Heinrich v. Pierer said. Those are empty words only since
they differ from practice done by Siemens in Germany.
Siemens employees fight for their rights to stop the unlawful and inhuman activity of Siemens
To prevent families from joblessness and social descent, Siemens employees have syndicated to NCI, a private organized network for employees who are threaten by job reduction. NCI supports people in their difficult emotional situation, throw light on the labour law, on discrimination happened in the company. NCI tries to prevent people from giving up, offers a platform for cooling down aggressiveness by diverting it into legal actions, such as demonstrations, public reporting, law suits.
Known active NCI members are permanently threatened by extraordinary cancellation to suppress right enlightenment, to prevent them from reporting about the incidents happening at Siemens Germany.
We never want to have again social
circumstances that had led to the Second World War.
That’s why we do not stop talking about a policy where people become unemployed and poor, have nothing to lose, only for a maximized profit for some few companies, achieved without any social responsibility .
Heinrich v. Pierer’s speech announces positive influence on the development of other countries, but by the actual line on home soil, companies, like Siemens, will compromise common prosperity, internal peace, and democracy middle term.
Nip Things in the Bud.
German translation – Deutsche Übersetzung