University of Wisconsin - Extension

The employees at the John Deere plant in Mannheim, Germany, and those at the one in Horicon, Wisconsin are thousands of miles apart geographically. However, they're not so far apart in terms of their experiences in the workplace. With this in mind, the University of Wisconsin-Extension School for Workers (SFW) brought employees at the two facilities and labor union representatives together in a first-of-its kind interactive video conference March 22.

On the one side, there were Machinists' union representatives from the Horicon John Deere plant and SFW faculty. On the other side were their counterparts from the John Deere and Daimler Chrysler plants in Germany and faculty from the IG Metall Education Centre in Bad Orb, Germany, a large union of metalworkers.

"This was a new way to discuss mutual problems and concerns, as well as mutual standards for health and wellness in the workplace," said Frank Emspak, an Associate Professor at SFW. Emspak participated in the two-hour conference from the IG Metall site in Germany.

"The focus was on union management relations, the role of the union in negotiating contracts, handling grievances and negotiating benefits, for example," added Maurice Better, Associate Director and Professor at SFW. Better led the Wisconsin side of the discussion from the UW-Extension's state-of-the-art distance learning facility, The Pyle Center, in Madison.

According to Better, the rationale behind the videoconference was that, whenever groups of people with diverse backgrounds meet for the first time to study important issues of mutual concern, a considerable amount of time is required for them to get to know one another.

"The participants have to spend time exchanging an immense amount of information about their respective social systems, union organization, contract negotiations and work organization. Otherwise, they will not be able to grasp the significance of each other's views on the major issues under discussion," he said. "Videoconferencing is the cost effective way for diverse groups of people to "get acquainted" with each other prior to engaging in longer term face-to-face dialogues on substantive issues."

During the videoconference, the two sides exchanged information about the wages, working conditions, and the political, social and economic contexts that govern the collective bargaining process in both countries.

Better hopes the videoconference, which was funded by the European Union Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, is just the first step in a much larger collaboration between the School for Workers and IG Metall. He hopes the conference leads to face-to-face meetings and other videoconferences aimed at discovering solutions to mutual problems. The need for such cross-national dialogue between union leaders has become increasingly important, as growing numbers of employers operate facilities in both Wisconsin and Europe, Better explained.

"We live in a global economy. Here in Wisconsin, there are more than 50 firms that either have affiliates in Germany or are owned by German firms. Similarly, there are Wisconsin firms that have plants in Germany," Better said.