This memo, written about two weeks after co-determination legislation passed the West German parliament on April 19, 1951, addresses the question what assistance the Marshall administration may provide to German unions in the implementation of co-determination. The debate on co-determination had been acrimonious, with over 80% of the workers in the Ruhr steel and coal mining industries (the industrial heart of the German economy) vowed to strike if co-determination legislation had not been passed by February 1st, and with delegates for US business associations intervening into the debate to halt the legislation. This scan contains a memo describing the highly sensitive situation, with local Marshall officers in Germany seeking to avoid the impression that they were influencing the implementation of co-determination after German unions had been infuriated by the US business intervention and by was they perceived as lukewarm support from US unions.
Related Subjects: Marshall Plan, Labor Relations: German Unions, Labor Relations: Co-Determination
Productivity Machines 