I think it’s safe to say that being taken over by Nazis isn’t exactly something new for Daimler, the parent company of what was once Hitler’s carmaker of choice, Mercedes-Benz. The difference now is that the old Nazis have been dead for decades, and this time no one wants these miserable Neo-Nazis who are reportedly trying to infiltrate Diamler’s works council to do anything but fuck right off.
The news comes to us from Reuters, which cites Daimler’s works council—a labor body that represents its workers—as claiming that lately they have seen Neo-Nazis attempting “to turn a key factory into a showcase for their views.”
Specifically, the Neo-Nazi group is using an alternative union, the Zentrum Automobil, as the means to get control of the management of Daimler’s Untertuerkheim factory and turn it into a propaganda tool for their radical far-right, xenophobic agenda. About 19,000 people work at Untertuerkheim, which builds engines, transmissions and axles.
According to a statement from the plant’s works council:
“It appears as if Untertuerkheim, with the help of labor councillors on the Liste Zentrum [Alternative Union] is to become a far-right showcase project” for the whole of Germany... The right-wing activities and the entanglements in neo-Nazi actions and organizations and the related public coverage are causing substantial damage to labor representation and through this are threatening our jobs.”
The statement goes on to remind the world what the works council thinks of this:
“The works council of Untertuerkheim categorically opposes such an abuse of labor council mandates for right-wing goals and purposes.”
That’s works council-talk for “fuck off, Nazis.”
Daimler itself has gone on the record opposing far-right activities in its labor pool, and stating:
“We stand by the liberal, democratic basic order and expect all employees to live tolerance in their daily work and to act together with respect, openness, faith and fairness.”
It’s also worth mentioning that Daimler’s flagship marque, Mercedes-Benz, was literally named for a little Jewish girl, Mercedes Jellinek. Still, before and during World War II, Daimler used people from Eastern Europe and prisoners of war in forced labor camps to build vehicles and armaments. After the war it admitted those ties and took part in some reparation efforts.
This all comes at a time when the world has seen something of an uptick in global fascist movements and Neo-Nazism, especially in Europe, though they’ve been met with strong resistance and counter-protests from, you know, decent people. At any rate, it seems Daimler’s not gonna stand for this crap, so let’s hope it doesn’t go any further than this.
No one wants you anywhere, Neo-Nazis! Fuck off.