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Bavarian Business Secretary sees no danger of a massive job cut
Wiesheu: Warum unsere Arbeiter die Kollegen in Tschechien und Polen nicht fürchten müssen. Von Jörg Schwieder und Norbert Peter Neukirchen/Hl. Blut.
Production in cheal salary countries in the east destroy work places especially in East Bavaria. Maybe only rumours? “The whole progress was good” according to bavarias Business Secretary Otto Wiesheu. At the beginning there was a big job cut in our area, but now, companies that hired in the Czech Republic or Poland, build up new work places in East Bavaria again. “The possibility of a mixing calculation boosted several companies and made them more competitive.” Several companies - especially in Altötting and Bayerisch Eisenstein - extrapolated new markets in CZ, Poland or Hungary, and like this they were able to increase their capacity to satisfy the increased demand. Especially the hard working “East Bavarian” doesn’t have to fear his collegues in CZ or Poland. To secure their work places it is necessary though, that the people compensate with more creativity, flexibility and especially know-how. Only if the quality of the products, which are manufactured in Germany is better, than of those in the east, the production can stay here. “Without the opening of the borders, some companies wouldn’t even have moved into our region.” Of course the expansion of a market always bears some risk, but the chances may not be ignored. A lot of examples show, that it is worth to build up a market in the East.
Experiences
Heinz-Herbert Berger is the manager of Tauscher Transformers in Freyung. His company works in CZ with 60 employees and in Germany with 40. He explains, that the big advantage of the cooperation with CZ are still the low salaries. “In the Czech Republic and engineer earns way less than an apprentice here.” Furthermore, czech people are highly motivated, flexible and educated. Their country also becomes more and more interesting concering the sales. But Berger also senses disadvantages: “The production is not under direct control anymore, the quality fluctuates permanently.” The needed materials have to be prepared properly and if only a tiny part is missing, the production in CZ stands still. Also the customs clearance needs a lot of time. “Usually we have 100 000 parts in 50 different customs positions on the truck. A lot of work, which needs to be improved badly.” But Tauscher still copes with it. What about the work places in the bavarian borderland? “This region won’t get poor, the difference between east and west will remain for long - if the Germans can keep there quality compared to CZ or Poland. Tauscher wants to keep the german employees with their product experiences and their knowledge of quality.
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