European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 8, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                F o c us police try to hold Back angry French miners protesting layoffs during a demonstration in Metz last month. French touting four Day workweek As solution to record unemployment by William Drozdiak the Washington Post n France the land where drinking wine is considered a key to Good health and eating foie gras can be part of a Thi i slimming cure the four Day workweek is now being touted As a Panacea for recession and record unemployment. As France s conservative government confronts More labor unrest the idea of offering an extra Day off is catching fire As a relatively painless Way to spread work around As companies strive to shed jobs and Cut costs to remain competitive. Volkswagen s decision to introduce a four Day week at its German plants has invested a once Radical notion with new respectability across Europe the continent s top automobile manufacturer plans to reduce its work Force to 100,000 by 1995, and the Shorter workweek was seen As the Only Way to avoid even harsher Job cuts beyond the 15,000 that will be lost. While Chancellor Helmut Kohl has warned germans they Are living beyond their Means and must work harder if they Hope to sustain their Prosperity there Are Clear signs his message has fallen on deaf ears. People continue to say they want More Leisure time even if it Means a Cut in salaries and a did Zeitung poll showed that 77 percent of germans surveyed Back the four Day week. With the worst recession in decades expected to leave 20 million european Community workers unemployed by next year governments Are desperate to put people Back on payrolls and ease the Burden on their social welfare systems. The four Day week is increasingly perceived by politicians on both sides of the ideological Divide As Western Europe s Best answer in coping with voter demands for a better Quality of life and with the brewing social tensions among Young people who cannot find jobs even with University degrees. Michel Ricard the presidential hopeful elected last month to head France s socialist party declared in his acceptance speech that the four Day week has become an Quot an urgent worthy and responsible  but the socialists Are still divided Over whether workers should be asked As Ricard recommends to sacrifice some of their income by working a four Day week or whether salaries should remain untouched As the communists and people want to get More out of their lives than having a steady Job even if they have to sacrifice a Little income.1a a Michel Ricard heed of France s socialist party other left Wing advocates of the working class prefer. In a recent conversation Ricard explained he sees the Shorter work week As a bold new rallying cry for the european left that he Hopes will revive the chances of social democratic parties to recapture Power from their conservative rivals. But he also justified the crusade on moral grounds contending an extra Day off would provide great intangible benefits that would ameliorate a society that puts too much emphasis on what people do for a living Quot people want to get More out of their lives than having a steady Job even if they have to sacrifice a Little income Quot he  extra Day would improve family relations and encourage people to use their time to learn new subjects and skills. That in turn would help the Economy because people would be. Able to adjust to rapid technological change rather than remain stuck in the  French president Francois Mitterrand has also endorsed a four Day week. He observed that All of the classical. Solutions intended to rectify Europe s social and economic crisis caused by chronic High unemployment Quot have failed so we must change our  the conservative government of prime minister edouard Balladur has been reluctant to Back the four Day plan Balladur and other leading figures in France s ruling Center right Alliance fear it will make French Industry even less competitive by reducing worker productivity and increasing wage costs. Balladur wants to turn control of 21 of France s state owned enterprises Over to the private sector economists say the privatisation plan will undoubtedly Lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs As new owners would seek to end what critics Call notorious Feather bedding at France s state run firms to make them More efficient so they can compete better in the global marketplace. But even if the plans Are put in a abeyance for the Sake of social peace the government is grimly aware it May still be forced to Lay off thousands of workers and pour in subsidies to keep the companies solvent. As a result influential rightist politicians such As Philippe Seguin Are now saying the four Day workweek can no longer be considered Quot socialist lunacy Quot and must be discussed As a serious possibility to staunch the Haemorrhage of jobs that has imperilled France s social cohesion. Short subject soft germans urged to gel Back to  the Baltimore Sun in the workaday world of Western Germany wages Are High vacations Are Long hours Are Short and health care is free. Retirement1 comes before age 60, and it s comfortable. For those who stumble the social welfare net is wide and sturdy. But after nearly half a Century of climbing to reach this plateau germans Are hearing a new message from business and government about their envied Standard of living they should be ashamed. They be gone soft. They re whiny inefficient goof offs who be become somehow in German. Past boasts of fat salaries and benefits have turned into laments of burdensome Quot worker  labor and management groups that once charted their futures together Are at each other s throats. And for the first time since the beginning of the nation s Long running Wirtschaft Wunder economic Miracle following world War ii germans Are being exhorted to Settle for less. Make no mistake Germany is still a wealth nation. But powerful blows of recession and reunification have overturned a Basket Ful of serpents in the wage earners Garden of Eden. Everything from rising Neo nazi violence and heightened East West tension to mass layoffs and big tax increases has slithered onto the landscape nibbling at the support for the political parties that have run the country since the War. The result is that Germany has reached a political and economic turning Point just As the rest of a remade Europe was preparing to follow its Lead. And As the country gropes for a new direction some leaders have decided that the first step should be a nationwide attitude adjustment. Quot we have to abandon the attitudes of demanding income increases every year and More Leisure time a says economics minister Guenter Rexroat who began the Effort with a critical report on German economic competitiveness. Quot we have to return to the traditional values like Diligence punctuality and  it is an Odd Public relations Campaign to begin on the Brink of an election year a especially with polls showing Low popularity ratings for Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian democratic party. Yet Kohl has joined in vigorously calling for Quot new  he said the country must Stop thinking of itself As Quot one big recreation  government and business Are United on the desire to reverse More than 40 years of steady gains in worker benefits and social programs. The German parliament has already approved cuts in unemployment pay and is considering the suggestions of Kohl s Cabinet to Cut childcare benefits and freeze social Security benefits for a year. German businesses have plenty of provisions to Gripe about. Besides the six weeks of vacation and 12 holidays virtually everyone gets there Are generous allowances for paid medical leave. If a doctor prescribes three weeks at a health spa to recover from stress Quot the employee still gets his salary the sum total of such items is Low productivity. The average German manufacturing worker puts in 1,665 hours per year while in the United states the figure is 1,912 hours and in Japan its 2,040. But this does t Cut expenses much because the same German worker costs about $25 per hour for salary and benefits while his . Counterpart costs about $15, and his japanese counterpart about $18. The stars and stripes wednesday december 8,1993