The EU Parliament wants to allow bomb manufacturers and ammunition companies to bypass maximum work hours in case of a security crisis. Belgian representative Marc Botenga is not having it. He says the EU Parliament is betraying workers.
The EU Parliament wants to allow bomb manufacturers and ammunition companies to bypass maximum work hours in case of a security crisis. Belgian representative Marc Botenga is not having it. He says the EU Parliament is betraying workers.
If the unemployment is not near zero, absolutely not. The manufacturers should hire the labour they need, especially since they operate for hefty profits. If there’s no labour left to be hired and we need more bombs still, then we can talk about overtime.
The thing is, these are often technical jobs that require training.
You can’t just immediately get more welders and electricians.
Of course. And you’ll both take welders from less critical industries, paying them more, as well as introduce training and retraining programs with the right incentives for people to apply. In addition, you’d employ new automation and tools where possible which would increase productivity.
That’s of course easy said, but not so easily done. Are these welders living anywhere near the manufacturing sites of the defense industries? Can you pay them enough for them to be willing to move across Europe? And why would they even consider it with jobs for the taking everywhere?
You seem to be forgetting that every industry is currently having a raging shortage of experienced welders and similar skill sets. If the defense industry raises pay, you can bet the infrastructure industry, which is also critical will just follow. And the building industry. And the oil industry, etc etc.
Edit: I don’t mean to say I agree with enforcing a 60-hour work week by the way, but I don’t think just paying more will automatically resolve labour shortages.
It’s why I said workers would shift from one industry to another. It would resolve the labour shortage in defence at expense of other industries. I’m not a fan of the free market and you correcrly show some issues with the market solution I proposed. I only proposed it because the EU tends to use market solutions. There are non-market solutions that can more effectively tackle shifting labour to defence manufacturing.
As for this being hard, it is hard. It’s also hard for people doing 60 hour weeks. One of these approaches puts the burden on a smaller group of people, instead of spreading it more fairly. In blunt terms, every joint has a finite lifespan in hours of operation. Joints working 50% more hours per week than others would have their useful life expended much earlier in life. As a result the physical ability of a 55 year-old worker who did 60 hour weeks on the factory floor is very different than the one who worked 40 hour weeks. And with the retirement systems under attack these days, the retirement ages pushing high 60s, this ain’t looking like a nice prospect.
I’m not saying this because I think you agree with the 60-hour week proposal. Just putting the other side of the equation in blunt terms.