ABSTRACT
This chapter offers more than just an exercise in comparative jurisprudence. Before they turn to the discussion of these three sub-systems, however, it will be helpful to put them in their proper historical context by briefly outlining the key developments in juridification which occurred in German industrial relations before 1933. The first is the Basic Law of the Federal Republic and other laws passed by the Bundestag relating to labor relations. The chapter discusses the first level of wage determination, the legal contract between the employers and the unions. It examines more closely the legal organization of the plant. The chapter describes the subject of strike law, suffice it to say at this juncture that the obligation for industrial peace, a concept deeply rooted in traditional German labor law, accounts in large part for the paucity of strikes in the Federal Republic.
