Head of German Confederation of Trade Unions considers 25-hour week;
"A concrete piece of Utopia"

Sueddeutsche Zeitung, July 29, 1997, page 4 (translated from German original)

Dieter Schulte, the head of the German Confederation of Trade Unions, has brought a reduction of the workweek to 25 hours onto the agenda. "When you look at advances in productivity, you can already consider a 25-hour week as a concrete piece of utopia," Schulte told the Bremer Nachrichten newspaper. If the total amount of work is decreasing, the number of hours of work must be reduced, he said. There is a consensus on this in the unions. "The dissent is only where a single plan, like the 32-hour week, is proposed to apply universally as a recipe against unemployment," he said. He argues for a limited choice. Different solutions should apply to different workplaces.

[Article continues about apprenticeships.]