Workers support top-level codetermination once its authority is explained to them

Evidence

Page 484 So far as worker participation was concerned, the study showed that the majority of those questioned had no clear picture either of the legal requirements or of how they were implemented. … This should not lead one to conclude that employees are prepared to do without participation in the more remote' sphere because they think the sphere closer’ to them is more important. The discussions show, rather, that employees support the demand for equal participation in the remote sphere as soon as trained workers’ representatives explain to them that it is those bodies which have the greatest authority to issue directives, and that the most urgent demands can only be met by having equal participation in these top-level bodies. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 510

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School’s recurring emphasis that workers’ consciousness is shaped by the information available to them, not fixed preference — cf. the Institute’s Weimar worker study.
• QUESTION: If discussion can shift workers toward remote-sphere demands, how much of apparent worker localism is manufactured by withholding explanation rather than genuine preference?