I really do not know enough on the European issues and most here have that covered far beyond what I could add.

Ah, but you do.  I'd be most interested in your thoughts as an American expat living in Germany.  It may come to that for some of us still on the left side of the pond.

What happened is that the women workers haphazardly resisted - all of them.  They just quit coming in on Saturdays.  The management asked why and they replied that they also had child and household duties at home.

IWW/CIO tactics!  I LOVE it!!

The truth is: management can't fire everyone on the factory floor all at the same time.  What they can (will?) do is selective firing of the 'agitators' and a slow replacement of the 'radicals' in the workforce as their contracts end.  Management has already demonstrated they are scumbags.  Expect them to keep pushing.

Will someone, anyone, please go to the local union hall and slap the union leaders seven ways from silly?  WTF do those morons think they're about?  

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre