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Leading an active social life was an unexpected bonus
to his Fulbright sojourn teaching American labor law in
Berlin, notes Thomas H. Geoghegan.
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Attorney Thomas H. Geoghegan, 52, had expected to be a little
lonely and homesick during his nine-and-a-halfweek lectureship
in Berlin. But the Chicago bachelor, who taught a course on
American labor law at Humboldt University, hadn't anticipated
the tremendous warmth and "accessibility"of Berliners.
"I went out to dinner with people almost every night,"
he says.
Through his teaching, Geoghegan, the author of two books about
labor law practice, set out to correct some misconceptions about
America by focusing on the Constitutional basis of U.S. labor
law. In Germany, where workers can only be fired for cause, many
wrongly assume that U.S. workers enjoy the same protections, he
explains-leading Germans to relate America's laissez-faire market,
with its inequalities and surges in unemployment, to failings
of culture or character.
His students in Berlin were surprised to learn that although
Americans can't be fired because of their race, age or sex, they
can be fired for any other reason at any time. Why, they asked,
didn't the U.S. pass stronger labor laws? "Because senators
representing 9 percent of the population can in theory block any
bill," Geoghegan told them. "They also think Americans
are against human-rights treaties-until you explain that we don't
have 'one person, one vote.' "
Geoghegan hopes that the conversations he enjoyed and the many
business cards he collected will lead to future collaborations.
"The experience gets you thinking about things in a new way,"
he says.
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