Keep up the momentum.

The article looks at European labor reform and the 35-hour work week as of July 2004. Putting the 35-hour week into law was a mistake. It is holding back economic growth and the competitiveness of French firms, scaring off foreign investors and killing job creation. In Germany the 35-hour week, introduced in the decade before 1995, is one of many factors that have raised labor costs to levels that have stifled growth and dulled productivity. The reform program launched by the government in 2003 hardly touches labor agreements or the power of workers' representatives within a firm. Privately more and more companies in Germany are preparing deals with their workers that raise the bar to 40 hours. Siemens was only the most visible pioneer. It persuaded its workers, and their union IG Metall, to accept a week of up to 40 hours, with no extra pay, to avoid the relocation of Siemens's mobile-telephone production to Hungary. The unions are ignoring the near-unanimous chorus of economists, industry analysts, and even some workers' representatives who argue that the 35-hour week is unsustainable, given the low-wage competition from central Europe.