Chapter Seven looks at labor relations in one US multinational company operating in West Germany: the International Business Machines (IBM) corporation. Some Americans, like Haynes, wanted to hold US companies abroad responsible for practicing the kind of business and labor relations outlined by the Productivity Program. Yet, IBM had practiced welfare capitalism in its own domestic operations since the 1930s, and the company continued to pursue the same form of corporate relations at home and abroad after WWII, eschewing the Productivity Program’s emphasis on plant-level collective bargaining. Instead, IBM’s longtime chief executive, Thomas J. Watson Sr., emphasized the “IBM family” and used gendered self-representations to shape his company’s labor relations abroad after his welfare capitalist ideas. When West German IBM employees organized a works council, he chafed at accepting it or any form of workers’ organization. IBM’s international labor relations point to the complexity and incoherence of the US economic model, where even leading companies did not follow the ideals of the Productivity Program in their own labor practices, although they generally supported the program’s goals and hosted visiting groups. In other words, even US companies in Germany did not necessarily practice the productivity model championed by the Marshall administration.
To the peculiarities of IBM’s corporate culture belonged the frequent intonation of company songs that persisted into the 1950s—longer than at many other companies…
“Die Rede von Thomas J. Watson,” IBM Deutschland (1953)
The first article, published in August of 1953, talks about Watson’s visit to Germany…
“Unsere Feier auf dem Killesberg,” IBM Deutschland (1954)
The second article covers the German celebration of Watson’s 40th anniversary with the company in June of 1954…
“Der 1. August 1958,” IBM Deutschland (1958)
The third article of IBM Deutschland, published in August of 1958, tells the story of a major milestone in the company’s labor relations: the abolishment of the distinction between blue and white collar employees, paying salaries rather than hourly wages to all employees…
Productivity Machines 