Would you quit your job for $580,000? Practically every Mercedes Benz worker offered this deal went for it . . .

Photo above – Apollo the robot - from Aptronik -stalks a Mercede Benz assembly line. This appears to be a staged photo however, since this robot doesn’t have a screwdriver or pair of pliers.

The MSN article (link below) has some obvious problems with it, but I believe the basic premise – that assembly line workers know when the curtain is dropping – is accurate. Mercedes just had 4,000 guys raise their hands and say yes to a $580,000 buyout. I hope they don’t imagine that they are set for life, and can kick back watching Champions League soccer and chugging Becks until they are laid to rest. Those Euro Dollars won’t last that long, dummkopf.

German automakers have always had a love-hate relationship with high-priced, native-born labor. At one point VW//Porsche/Audi/Mercedes pressured the Bundesrat to pass a special law so they could import low factory wage workers from Turkey. To build the high-priced cars they export to everyone else. There are still 3 million Turkish migrants and kids of migrants living in The Federal Republic of Germany today, despite this sun having set on this experiment decades ago.

Robots are coming. That’s why German autoworkers took the buyout. Evidently Mercedes has a clever accountant (or an AI system) which figured out that you can hire a robot, maintain, and service it, for less than $580,000. Depending on the future cost of oil and electricity, of course.

Where the MSN article might take a wrong turn is when it asserts that Mercedes is trying to avoid “bad morale” with these buyouts, like the problems which could occur with involuntary terminations. This is the sort of rookie reporting mistake you’d expect a news agency like MSN to make, because it doesn’t know much about the EU. Forget the morale, MSN. It costs A LOT to terminate a worker in the EU. If you want to close a factor there are prenotifications, months or years in advance. This provides lead time for various government agencies to hold a Chinese fire drill of examining permits, paperwork, and legacy contracts. If those agencies can’t find a way to delay the closure, then legislative hearings are held, to protect politicians from blowback. Eventually that factory will close, no matter how many speeches are given on the floor of Bundesrat, and however many lawyers get involved. It’s an expensive mess, in addition to being bad for everyone’s morale. Especially the morale of MB shareholders, directors and career politicians seeking re-election.

This sort of thing is already happening in the USA, but on a smaller scale. Ford had plenty of takers on its most recent “$50,000 and wave goodbye” offer. Technically, this was early retirement. But the $50K applies with a hard stop (no pension?) at the end of the current contract for some workers.

The German deal doesn’t involve a pension like some of the Ford deals do. And Germany has a bigger safety net of health care, government subsidized housing, food assistance, public transportation, and probably discounts for the cheap seats at a Bayern Munchen soccer match.

When robots get hired, you don’t have to offer them a buyout later on, or pay them a pension, or have taxpayers provide housing assistance and healthcare for decades afterwards. You just replace those robots every few years, like you do with your Roomba, or a car.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


Turns Out Offering Up To $580,000 Is All It Takes To Make Auto Workers Quit