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Background Reading A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A special report on Germany
Inside the miracle
How Germany weathered the recession
Mar 11th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
“THIS is what we love,” exclaims Jan Stefan Roell, presenting an intricately (杂乱地，复杂地) worked ingot([冶]锭铁, 工业纯铁) of gleaming(闪闪发光) steel as though it were a piece of jewellery(注意二者的搭配). It belongs somewhere in the innards(<口>内部结构，内脏) of a testing machine made by Zwick Roell, the firm he owns. One model rips the eyes off teddy bears (to see if children can), another pokes computer keyboards. Mr. Roell wants the visitor first to admire the part, next the Swabian craftsmen who fashioned it and then the German genius for making expensive and indispensable(不可缺少的) things. His customers expect German thoroughness(彻底性), he says.
Ulm-based Zwick Roell, which has 950 employees and sales of 150m ($202m) a year, is a typical Mittelstand(德国专业化的中小型企业) firm. Until the 1930s it made buttons from cow horn imported from Argentina, but when plastic took over it switched to testing machines. Like many Mittelstand enterprises Zwick works backstage, making things that are used in making other things. The thousands of Zwick-like firms that constitute the engineering sector are a cornerstone(奠基石, 基础) of Germany’s industrial economy. They employ nearly 1m workers, more than any other industry, and export almost 80% of their production. Often the product is not merely a machine, but also a panoply(n. 全副盔甲，盛装，盛况，防护物) of services(不知道这个搭配的意思是不是全套的服务？) that go with it.
【许多德国的中小型企业都在进行加工，即从国外进口，加工后在出口。这是德国工业的基石。】
Last year they took a beating(挨打(受到打击)). Sales plunged(猛跌，骤降
非常native的好词) by a fifth to 160 billion; Zwick fared no better(native表达
一样糟糕). The wonder was that engineering firms shed(native表达) a mere 40,000 jobs. “In narrow commercial terms we can’t justify that,” says Hannes Hesse, head of the Association of German Machine Builders in Frankfurt(法兰克福). His members are betting that demand will bounce back(native表达), but it is a gamble. Three possible misfortunes could scupper(to defeat or put an end to
native表达) recovery, he reckons: another terrorist attack, another
tremor(a feeling of uncertainty or insecurity) in the banking system and a failure by banks to supply enough credit to his members or their customers. The jobs miracle could yet falter (lose drive or effectiveness).
【德国机械厂只解雇了40000个人，即使整体的销量减少了20%至160M 欧元。机械制造联盟的成员正在打赌，他们认为经济能够回升】
The last time Zwick made a regular employee redundant(这是商务英语表示裁员的地道表达) was in 1992. That is because the workforce reacts to economic shocks like a well-engineered suspension system. When the crisis hit, Mr. Roell shed some workers on temporary contracts and cut the working hours and pay of regular employees. When such a deal is negotiated with the works council it is binding on the workforce, a “huge advantage”, he says. He invites the council’s chairman to every management meeting.
【他很少解雇职员】
This symbiosis owes something to the intimate scale(不知为啥可以如此搭配~可能是取的” 舒适的,怡人的,气氛融洽的”一意吧~) of a Mittelstand enterprise, but it also relies on an institutional machine as intricate as one of Zwick’s testing contraptions(n. 精巧的设计, 装置). Mr. Roell recruits skilled workers through an apprentice system with roots in medieval(中世纪) guilds(行会，同业公会，协会). He manages labour relations within a framework set by negotiations between employers’ associations and trade unions. This arrangement survives because Germans have a knack for(“擅长”的超级native表达!) changing the way something works yet keeping its basic structure intact(完整无缺的，未经触动的，未受损伤的).
【这种职员与雇主的共生关系不仅仅是由于中小型行业的intimate scale,还来自于一种学徒系统，它源自于中世纪的工会】
Slowly but surely(稳定的,坚定不移的)
Twenty years ago it was a byword(格言, 谚语, 笑柄) for rigidity(固执，坚定，僵化). Wages and working conditions were set in sector-wide negotiations that allowed individual firms little scope(“机会”的native表达) for variation, tying employers’ hands. Outwardly(表面地, 外观上地) little has changed, but the contracts have changed character. In the 1980s “they were like the Bible,” says Martin Wansleben, chief executive of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. “Now they provide important guidance.”
【之前，工资以及工作环境受合同束缚，在当时它就像圣经。然而现在，它只是一种指导】
This was not a bloodless coup(政变，砰然的一击，妙计，出乎意料的行动). Many East German enterprises, caught between low productivity and paying D-mark wages, shunned(避开，规避，避免) sector-wide labour contracts. High unemployment, the threat of production moving to central Europe and Mr. Schröder’s reforms cranked up the pressure(此搭配表示施加压力). As unions lost members, employers defected(变节，叛变) from the industry federations. Only half of west German private-sector workers are covered by sector-wide contracts, against two-thirds in 1998(作对比的方式之一), says Reinhard Bispinck of the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, a think-tank(智囊团) close to the trade unions.
【然而现在这种良好的共生关系并不是没有任何牺牲就达成的】
Give and take
And even when they do, the contracts are riddled with “opening clauses”. At firm level bosses and works councils formed “alliances for jobs” under which workers sacrificed pay to secure employment. Working-hours accounts allow companies to adjust the amount of work done to peaks and troughs(固定词组,高峰和低谷 native表达) in production without paying overtime(付加班费). This flexibility powered exports, lifted economic growth and fattened profits(这三个动词真是用地excellent!看着好激动的说~). It enriched everyone, the unions grumble(抱怨；咕哝), except workers. Wage rises have lagged behind(“落后”的native表达) productivity gains and inflation since 2000, driving down(“使下降”的native表达) unit labour costs relative to those of Germany’s competitors (see chart 3).
【工会与雇主们达成了共识，形成了就业联盟。工人们牺牲自己的收入去保持就业，就业时间可以随生产的高峰与低谷而调整。这刺激了出口，但是，工人们得利并不多。】
smash the machine
Though bosses readjusted the settings in their favour, they did not. In some ways Mitbestimmung, workers’ rights to influence decision-making, was strengthened. Job alliances, for example, draw works councils into company strategy. In December workers at Mercedes(奔驰--梅塞德斯)’s Sindelfingen factory near Stuttgart went on strike after the company said it would shift production of its C-Class cars to Alabama, so Mercedes promised to maintain employment at the plant until 2020. That pledge “would be worth nothing without new products and investments”, points out Jörg Hofmann, head of the Baden-Württemberg branch of IG Metall(德国金属工会), the trade union for the industry. Top of the reformers’ hit list(a list of those targeted for special attention or treatment) is Germany’s rigid regime(政体，制度) for protecting workers from dismissal(又一表示”解雇”的词). But without that protection workers would not allow hours to pile up in working-time accounts, says Alexander Herzog-Stein, also of the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
【老板们之后把工人们也纳入了公司的决策管理。】
The crisis has drawn the two sides closer together. Both are determined to defend Germany’s export success. It helps that they can blame the recession on outsiders and bankers rather than on each other. More important, employers have so far kept their side of the flexibility bargain(再度温习, “遵守承诺”) by keeping up employment.
Much of the credit for Germany’s jobs miracle goes to Kurzarbeit(缩短工时), a scheme under which government hands out(给与，分发，散发) subsidies to firms that retain surplus workers, but there is more to it. Joachim Möller, head of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), part of the Federal Employment Agency, argues that flexible working hours have been an important factor in holding up employment. When the recession hit, workers had built up a large number of extra hours in their working-time accounts that could be wound down(减少) as work dried up. But firms were also looking ahead to a prospective scarcity of labour.
【在金融危机时，两方的关系更加近了】
In 2009 the number of people of working age in western Germany shrank for the first time. The firms hit hardest by the crisis were precisely those that had the biggest problems recruiting skilled labour before it. “Most companies will see a significant impact” from a shortage of qualified labour by 2014 or 2015, says Harald Krüger, head of personnel at BMW, a Munich(慕尼黑)-based carmaker. Despite the crisis, BMW was careful not to cut its annual intake of 1,000 apprentices.
【处在工作年龄的人的数量在2009年第一次下滑】
All this provides a perfect setting for Mr. Roell to indulge his passion for profitable perfectionism. His machines are four times as expensive as competing testers made in China, his second-biggest market. The company actually makes its own boxes so that the gear arrives in perfect condition. Although Mr. Roell has competitors, he acknowledges no peers(认为无人可与其并肩). Where his main American rival prefers standard solutions, Zwick’s engineers go for a tailor-made(定做的) approach. The complexity-loving culture on the factory floor is shaped by Germany’s “dual system” of vocational training, which combines classroom learning with hands-on experience. At Zwick Roell it is reinforced by a Swabian passion for inventive tinkering, or tüfteln. “I can delegate things that in other countries need supervision,” he says.
【所有的这些形式，对像R这样的中小型企业有着很大的帮助。他们追求着有利可图的完美主义】
It is a pact(n. 契约，协定，条约) that depends partly on the owner not appearing to be too greedy. Mr Roell reinvests two-thirds of the firm’s profits. The Mittelstand survives “because families don’t want the money”, he says. “They want the business to continue.” And they are not easily put off(欺骗): “If people tell you tax is a big issue they haven’t done their homework.” Bureaucracy is a bigger problem. Mr Roell grumbles that he has to install internal safety doors on his lifts, “ridiculous stuff which keeps me from doing my job”. All in all, though, he feels that Germany’s skilled workers and its infrastructure(基础结构，基础设施) make it “a wonderful place to do business”.
【虽然官僚也是一个问题，但是只要雇主不要太贪婪，公司的境况不会太差。毕竟，德国的训练有素的工人和良好的设施有利于做生意】
But the success of firms like Zwick Roell is not synonymous with(不同的) Germany’s. Manufacturing’s share of output and employment has dropped, though it remains larger than in most competitor countries (see chart 3, above). Workers with permanent factory jobs have done relatively well recently. Since 2005 the pay of IG Metall’s members went up by a total of 14%, says Mr Hofmann—less than the rise in productivity, but still “satisfactory”. The price of flexibility was higher for workers in weaker sectors or with “atypical” contracts. Schlecker, a chain of discount chemists(药房), recently shut down some shops and sacked the workers(“裁员”的又一native说法), but at the same time opened bigger ones with temporary staff at lower pay. Public outrage(公众的不满情绪) forced a retreat.
【类似于R的成功与德国的成功是两码事】
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发表于 2010-4-30 20:28:49
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