Labor Relations in Transition: A Comparison of Japan, Germany and the United StatesDIJ History Workshop – FES Workshop Series on Labor Relations

Labor in industrialized societies, especially production labor in the manufacturing industry, is threatened to fall victim to globalization and economic restructuring. As industrial jobs are cut off or transferred into low wage countries, wages and/or employment tend to decrease. Nevertheless, the specific form and dimension in which labor’s interests are affected by globalization and restructuring is shaped by historically grown labor relations. Based on different historical experiences, in Japan, the US and Germany different patterns of representation, labor-management relations, public protection policies and corporate strategies have emerged. These different frameworks and their influence on the specific shape of the current socio-economic transformation were discussed in the workshop. A historical and comparative view on labor relations was chosen to identyfy the conditions under which labor’s interests are most effectively represented under the pressures of globalization and restructuring.