Coordinating Conflict: German Works Councils in Tech Worker Resistance to Mass Layoffs

What causes tech workers to mobilize against their employers? This paper develops a theory of class formation and mobilization in the context of worker resistance to mass layoffs in the German technology sector. In 2002, when Siemens threatened its Information and Communication Networks facility in Munich with mass layoffs, thousands of workers took to the streets and succeeded in significantly reducing the number of workers affected by layoffs. Relying on interviews with workers, managers, union leaders, works councilors, and elected officials, as well as analyses of primary documents, I show how institutions that were designed to facilitate cooperation between labor and capital, especially works councils, enabled labor leaders to build solidarity among the most unlikely working class: high skilled, highly compensated tech workers. The institutional framework for cooperation provided effective resources for mobilization because it channeled workers toward collective action. But most importantly, institutional mechanisms for cooperation encouraged bottom-up democratic organizing, thereby sidestepping tech workers’ anti-union hostility. In order to specify the causal mechanisms by which cooperative institutions can support antagonistic mobilization strategies, I compare the case of Siemens with layoffs at Infineon’s Munich facility in 2002, where workers accepted management’s plans. Cooperative institutions support worker mobilization when the mechanisms for collective action are consistent with workers’ self-understandings, but integrating those understandings with existing institutions still requires strategic and effective leadership.