ADA
The Americans with Disabilities Act and The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires all employers to make reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities and does not specify the types of disabilities which are protected, leaving this decision up to the courts to decide when there is a dispute. Employers with more than 15 employees who will not suffer undue hardship from making such accommodations must abide by the ADA. "The Rehabilitation Act also goes beyond providing legal protections. It provides for direct services to people with disabilities which help them to become qualified for employment" (Leuchovius 2014). I predict in the future that the range of disabilities will be expanded considerably, including a wider range of mental health conditions and unseen disabilities, versus those more obviously manifested in a physical way, such as veterans with PTSD.
Labor Unions
Labor unions are considerably more powerful in Europe. Germany, for example, has extremely strong trade unions. Germany unions have historically negotiated for very high wages for their workers. "In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S. produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary...
made $33.77 per hour" (Allen 2011). In contrast to the U.S., a substantial portion of the labor force in Germany is unionized and wields considerable power as a result. A smaller percentage of France is unionized but the unions still hold considerably more power than they do in the United States. "Less than 8% of employees in France belong to a trade union, a figure that has collapsed from a high of about 30% in the 1950s. The figure today is below that in Britain (26%), Germany (18%) and even America (11%). In the French private sector, the rate is lower still: just 5%, next to 14% among civil servants. [But] France's long tradition of street protest sometimes allows unions to secure policy concessions" and under law they have considerable statutory power in a manner that affects other workers (S.P. 2014). "Under French law, elected union delegates represent all employees, union members or not, in firms with over 50 staff on both works councils and separate health-and-safety councils" (S.P. 2014).
PART 2: Reorganization
In 2009, General Motors was forced into bankruptcy. Even before the bankruptcy, the company was struggling and had instituted major reforms to reduce waste, particularly in regards to…
