German automakers push 40-hour workweek as industry battles existential crisis

Germany's automotive industry, long the engine of the nation's postwar prosperity, now finds itself at a crossroads where the habits of abundance collide with the demands of survival. Carmakers like Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are pressing workers to extend their weeks from 35 to 40 hours without additional pay, arguing that the gap between German labor costs and those of competitors in Japan and China has become unsustainable. Unions, who won the shorter workweek through decades of hard-fought bargaining, see the proposal not as a lifeline but as a transfer of sacrifice from shareholde