Ausländerentlassungen beim Volkswagenwerk: Anmerkungen zu Rainer Dombois

Mass dismissals at Volkswagenwerk — Discussion of the paper of Rainer Dombois: The paper presents a critical comment on the article by R. Dombois in the present issue of this journal. The central question is why the dismissal policy of capital should discriminate against workers according to nationality. The arguments proposed by Dombois are found to be insufficient. Contrary to his position, it is argued that there are considerable economic reasons not to discriminate against foreign workers to such an extent, as seems to have happened at Volkswagenwerk. As an explanatory factor state policy towards foreign labor is introduced. In the Federal Republic of Germany the labor administration has developed legal means to displace foreign workers in favor of indigenous workers in times of high unemployment. These means were applied during the present economic crisis. Using empirical evidence on state policy (e. g., no renewal of working permits for 300 Turkish laborers at the same time), it is argued that this specific legal situation of foreign workers is to a large extent responsible for their massive "voluntary" acceptance of dismissals seemingly compensated by indemnity payments. This led to a discussion of the relation between the position of the state and the position of capital towards the employment of foreign workers during economic crises. There seems to exist a considerable conflict, which is reduced in scope, if capital takes into account factors like social peace at the plant level. Whether this was in fact the case at Volkswagenwerk has to be looked at in future empirical research.