Talk:Volkswagen and unions/GA1

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Mujinga (talk · contribs) 11:05, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Overview

• I'll take this on for review as part of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/GAN Backlog Drives/January 2022. Regarding the note on the nomination, I see there's already been discussion on the talkpage re broadness which I would echo and the article has since been expanded, so perhaps it's worth deleting that note. Mujinga (talk) 11:05, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
• Thanks for an interesting read! The artilce is stable, neutral, well-sourced, and no original research. I do have queries on prose and some minor MOS issues, below. The main sticking point right now is focus / broadness. To expand on the last point, the table you have helpfully provided shows VW has factories in many countries, so then why are the workers organizations of most places not mentioned here at all? Would it be better to make this article about VW organizations in specific places? Or an umbrella article? Or split the article into VW orgs in Germany / US / elsewhere? By comparison, IBM worker organization is quite easily laid out, 1 Australia, 2 China, 3 United States, but admittedly much smaller. Looking forward to discussing this with you, putting the review on hold now. Mujinga (talk) 12:33, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
  • Hi @Shushugah:, just thought I'd check in to see what's happening. No changes here since your reply Jan11 and no changes on the article by you since Jan18. Do you have time/energy to carry on? Mujinga (talk) 10:05, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

    @Mujinga hey there, short answer; I'll have more time this weekend and would appreciate an extension! I've addressed all of the grammar issues you mentioned. The English variation would be British English (added template already) generally; "percent" versus "per cent" are both acceptable in British English. I strongly prefer percent, given that per cent is ambiguous meaning. I am open to suggestions on whether the US section should also be British English, or change to American English; don't care myself that much either way.)

    I have found sources for Slovakia, China and Argentina; the last remaining change/question for me is...how to situation Germany, since a big portion of article delves into German origins/history, but also most transnational relations/strengths derive from Wolfsburg, Germany as a headquarter city/country. That said, I found more sources on other large plants/structures and will mention those more explicitly in a Germany section perhaps, for example mentioning the other marques operating in Germany. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 11:46, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

    • Great let's carry on then, drop me a line when you are ready. On Br/US eng I'm not bothered which you use, just that the entire article should be consistent. I see your point on percent/per cent, but the guidance from MOS:PERCENT is pretty clear - "In the body of non-scientific/non-technical articles, percent (American English) or per cent (British English) are commonly used" Mujinga (talk) 12:12, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

      So no edits here or on article in a week, would it be better to fail for now and renominate after working on the article at your own pace? Mujinga (talk) 14:15, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

      No further communication so failing Mujinga (talk) 20:14, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV () 3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant () Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Copyvio check

• earwig suggests violations but its spammy sites as discussed in the DYK nomination so all good

Pictures

• the two pix on the article are licensed ok
• the beetle pic is far away from the mention of the beetle in the text and the caption claims would need referencing
• i would suggest having a look for more pix of workers, on a quick trawl i found some nice stuff in the Bundesarchiv, for example:
  • File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F060161-0032, Wolfsburg, VW Autowerk, Eisenbahntransport.jpg
  • File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F040736-0022, Salzgitter, VW Autowerk.jpg
  • File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F038813-0010, Wolfsburg, Volkswagen, Kantine.jpg

Lead

• As you prob now know since I see ypou have been doing GARs recently, the lead should be bigger to summarise the article per MOS:LEAD
• VW is used as an abbreviation but not first explained

Organizational structure

• " is arguably " not really encyclopedic, would be ok if cited as an opinion of a named expert
• Volkswagen - so are we talking about Volkswagen Group or Volkswagen? in any case can be wikilinked
• maybe german governance structures need to be explained a bit more
• "half of the German workforce" - half of its German workforce?
• Supervisory Board / Public ownership - don't think you need these subheadings
• hitting issues of focus here .. are we talking about VW globally or just germany or indeed just at their main site? what is the scope of this article? the current title would suggest worker organizations anywhere where volkswagen is present

Mujinga First of all, thank you for the comprehensive review! I will work on the points you made, as well as specifically add high level info about China, Czechia (found sources), Argentina and China. Quickly responding to this point; the scope of the article is global. Given that half of the entire workforce/history is in Germany, and that the global structures are multi-tiered, for example while the top employee representative in Wolfsburg, Germany at VW Germany is Daniela Cavallo, she is also the chair of the European AND Global Works Council, and the German Supervisory Board makes decisions impacting all Group members, including outside of Germany. I try to emphasize this point of tension, between German governance/institutional power (with global impact), and the interests of non German group members. It's unique from nearly any other company in that sense, since most do not have such strong multi-tiered governance structures. I try to elaborate on these examples where relevant, for example Brazil's contacts with German Works Council/trade unionists during the 1970s. Thank you for reviewing this very long/complex article, and I look forward to working with you! ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 15:55, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

• following on from that, i miss an intro sayig what VW is, where it has plants etc

Early origins

• Volkswagen (VW) - abbreviation and wikilink good to see, but needs to be higher up

1937–1945: Nazi origins

• % - percent (us eng) or per cent (br eng), didn't notice yet which style you are using, or indeed another one
• again not sure if you need these subheadings
• could expand on what "Eastern Workers" were, give german term - source is ok as self-source, a page number would be helpful

1945–1949: British occupying power

• discus - discuss
• British Major Hirst - first mention so give first name
• "denazifcation" - typo and also why in quotes?
• mid - mid-

Transnational activity

• "Transnational activity and organizing started in the 1970s between German workers and workers at foreign plants in Belgium, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa" - hmm so what is the focus of the article? when did these foreign plants begin? post WW2 or earlier? needs contextualising

• "The International Solidarity working group in Wolfsburg, along with the VW World Group Committee established in 1979 by International Metal Workers' Federation played a role in promoting international coordination" suggest "The International Solidarity working group in Wolfsburg, along with the VW World Group Committee established in 1979 by the International Metal Workers' Federation, played a key role in promoting international coordination"

European Works Council

• "With the acquisition of SEAT," when?
• you are relying purely on Rüb here and since its quite a long doc, page numbers would be handy for checking, eg "The first meeting was in 1990, " - seems to be page21

Global Works Council

• " known as Volkswagen Global Works Council," - " known as the Volkswagen Global Works Council,"
• " chaired by Klaus Volkert." weird tacked on clause, suggest making a new sentence or rephrasing
• a page ref for the table info would be handy

Global Framework Agreements

• " 'Charter on Temporary Work for the Volkswagen Group', " - def dont need italics and apostrophes, wondering if you need either
• " temporary workers at FAW-Volkswagen cited " for what reason?

Brazil

• "Trade union activity in VW was heavily repressed " - in VW or in Brazil?
• "In a 2014 National Truth Commission" - suggest In the 2014 National Truth Commission
• " In 2020, VW agreed to pay 5.5 million euros, part of which will go the Heinrich Plagge victims' association, and the rest going towards various research and human rights projects" is a bit garbled, and could summarise better "Volkswagen will pay 36m reals (€5.5m), of which 16.8m reals will go to the Henrich Plagge victims’ association of former employees and their relatives, and the rest of which will be donated to human rights programmes" in the source

1964 coup

• "Nordhoff didn't" - Nordhoff did not
• "What is currently taking place is a hunt such as we did not even see back in 1933 in Germany" - since its a direct quote i'd like to have a cite on this sentence in case more info is added and the source is broken off
• at this point i did a MOS:DASH fix using the handy script
• "wage dispersion" - not sure what that means

United States

• feels weird in terms of article structure to talk about Germany (without mentioning you are talking about Gemrnay), then Brazil, then US again, then the article just stops

Chattanooga, Tennessee

• " Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant has attracted " suggest Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant attracted - also when?
• "United Auto Workers " add abbreviation
• " It was backed" what was backed?
• "percent" correct if we are us eng, replace % with whatever you are using per WP:%
• a chunk of text here is also at United Auto Workers, is the provenance marked?

Westmoreland, Pennsylvania

• sentences can be pulled into paragraphs in this section
• % again
• "Volkswagen of America" - first mention of this entity i think, should be mentioned earlier
• VWoA - again, please first define abbreviation after long name
• wikilink Chrysler
• "and that the plant " - "and said that the plant"
• "assemblers" could link Assembly line
• "Volkswagen of America Inc. " reads weird, suggest volkswagen
• "The most prominent black executive at the Westmoreland factory and spokesman for the "VW Black Caucus" committed suicide, bringing further notoriety to the suit.[48]" maybe add another sentence or two on this, otherwise it seems gossipy

See also

• IBM worker organizations - ok, IndustriALL Global Union - delete, mentioned in text already

Notes

• 1 needs ref
• 2 needs ref

References

• excellent!

External inks

• ok

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.