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The Trade Unions in Germany. Facing New Challenges. in Visitors' Information Special Report

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The Trade Unions in Germany. Facing New Challenges. in Visitors' Information Special Report DOCUMENT RESUME ED 373 165 CE 066 964 AUTHOR Horstkotte, Hermann; Schroder, Karsten TITLE The Trade Unions in Germany. Facing New Challenges. IN Visitors' Information Special Report. 2nd Quarter. INSTITUTION Inter Nationes, Bonn (Germany). PUB DATE 94 NOTE 24p. PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Economic Factors; *Economic Impact; *Employment Practices; Foreign Countries; Organizational Change; *Organizational Climate; *Organizational Effectiveness; *Organizational Objectives; Socioeconomic Influences; Unemployment; *Unions IDENTIFIERS *Germany ABSTRACT A study examined the current status and likely future of trade unions in the German Trade Union Federation. The study focused on the following topics: unions as part of a social partnership, unions as partners in self-administration, collective pay policy against unemployment, plantreorganization and its impact on work and wages, the trend towardincreasing part-time employment, flexible working hours, company pension schemes and invested wages, the basic problem of long-term unemployment, efforts toavoid a downward spiral in employment and wages, upheaval in Germany's unions, union efforts to gain more members, and union memberswith foreign passports. The study established that, within a 2-year period, union membership decreased from 11.8 million to 10.3million. Membership losses were especially high in eastern Germany. Thefuture of the federation as the umbrella organization of Germany'strade unions was being questioned by several branch unions that areseeking more powers at the local level andexpressing a desire to integrate with certain other branch unions. Despite the internal problems facing the German unions, their stabilizing function in the economy and society as a whole still remained evident. (A list ofthe federation's 16 branch trade unions with membership numbers is included.) (MN) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Inter Nationes Kennedyallee 91-- 103 D - 5300 Bonn 2 Telefon: 02 28 / 88 00 Telex: 17 228 308 inci PRESS telefax: 88 04 57 tr) INTER NATIONES BONN to IN Visitors'Information cv)r- cy) Sozial-Report Social Report 2nd Quarter 1994 The tradeunions inGermany Facing newchallenges by Hermann Horstkotte Karsten Schriider BEST COPYAVAILABLE 'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION GRANTED BY I dot alonal Peseatc h and iMptovurnunl MATERIAL HAS BEEN F DuCATiONAL RE SOURCES INFORMATION CENTF R IF RICI /: - This doc umen1 has twen teruoduc.ed aS ,,r /tut (cured IcOm the person ro otgarutahr,n k./ .,-ev--,T10 L. ...\ ;s'S 6 t - I Mono; , hahgeS have teen made to dnprove No teriff.d1.1 bon qualay RESOURCES ptunly ol upvc or up.ruunS staloci m In.S Clrx u TO THE EDUCATIONAL mon! do not net essahly reoreserq &hr.., INFORMATION CENTERIERIC1' 0( FR puculutn nt poi., V \..t) 'N ,D O 2 Die Geitierkschaften inDeutschland(engl) reprints requested. Veroffentlichung Frei Belege erbeten. Free of charge justificatifs. Publicacion libre - seagradecen comprobantes Publication libre Priere d'envoyer des exemplaires IN Visitors' Information Editor: Dr Horst Kollmann Translation: John England June 1994 3 ISSN: 0171 - 8738 CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 4 I. The location advantage of socialpartnership II. Partners in self-administration 6 III. Collective pay policy against unemployment 7 IV. Plant reorganisation: less pay forless work 9 V. More employed through part-timework 10 VI. Flexib ..e working hours 10 VII. Company pension schemes andinvested wages 12 VIII. Basic problem of long-term unemployment 13 14 IX. Avoid the downward spiral 16 X. German trade unions in upheaval XI. The topic of the future: gain newmembers 17 XII. Union members with foreign passports 18 XIII. The trade unions and their members 20 Social Report 2-1994 Trade unions III - 43 Introduction (DGB) has a total The German TradeUnionFederation membership of more than10 million workers,of which 3.2 Helmut Kohl empha- million are women.Federal Chancellor congress sised the need for strongtrade unions at the DGB steelexpert in Berlinin mid-June1994 which elected tothe late Dieter Schulte itschairmanin succession member of the Heinz-Werner Meyer.Schulte, previously a trade Executive Boardof IGMetall, the metalworkers' unions and "lead union, wants to modernisethe German trade millions of unem- and bring themtogether". In view of the strategies in ployed in Germany,the DGB is seeking new order to be able toperform as a strongnegotiating partner also vis-à-vis theemployers' associations. The number of workersorganised in the16 German trade unions fell within two yearsfrom 11.8 million to10.3 members million. In particular,the trade unions lost many the in eastern Germany who wereregistered in the files of former GDR. But the longrecession and growing unemployment were alsonoticeable in the West.The trade unions have less revenue and aregoing through an orientationcrisis. With German unity andthe political changein East Europe, and social the unions were thrownback to old core problems issues. In Germany it was nowabout alleviating theimpaCts of the collapse ofthe GDR industry orcountering "wage dumping" through East Europeantemporary workers. internal discussion in A further focalpoint of the latest the DGB is the questionof the future role ofthe umbrella organisation. IG Metall and thecivil service and transport trade workers' trade union,OTV, or the chemicals industry that allows the union, IG Chemie, want a federation individual unions their own scope.They believe the DGB shouldlimit itself toits coretasks, socio-political commentaries and individual andcollective legal advice, 5 1 while concrete work in companiesshould be left to the branch organisations. In order to strengthenthemselves for this work,several individual trade unions areaiming at close integration. The unions coveringthe chemicals and coal mining industries and the mini-unionfor the leather industry are planning to merge soon. IG Bau,Steine, Erden, covering the building industry, wants tointegrate with the farmers' and foresters' organisation. By contrast, the trade unionsembracing the branches wood and plastics, education and science, the media or food andcatering are defending their independence. Not a few tradeunion members expect from their organisations more thanthe improvement of their incomes, shorter working hours orbetter working conditions. What is called for is a moreintensive commit- ment, for example on ecological issues. The restructuring is handicapped not least bythe fact that in their clout among one another the tradeunions still in many cases reflect the'-dustrial society of the 1960s. The No.1, with a third of all DGB members, is IGMecall, which is essentially the trade union of the motorindustry. The trade unionsrepresenting the civilservicesalso have great weight - ata time when deregulation andprivat- isation are also serious targets of publicemployers. The limitation of the state monopoly in postal servicesis an example. For many employees of software and mobile telephone companies,providers of financial services and part-time workers in other service areas, trade union goals often remain extraneous. In their eyes, theindustry-wide collectivebargainingagreements favouredby thetrade unions do justice to neither the specific possibilities of individual companies northepersonal needs andcapa- bilities of the employees. However, these internal problems of the Germantrade unions cannot obscure their stabilising functionin the economy and society as a whole. This was clear anew at thenational DGB congress in June 1994. Like the FederalChancellor as guest speaker, newly-elected chairman Dieter Schulte 2 6 identified himself with new ways tomaster mass unemploy- ment even if, asin thecase of part-timework, this presupposes a change ofmentality among wide circles of the working community. TheALgs_atintage cf§sgLalp_grtnvshl,ps In the spring of 1994 the EuropeanUnion's single market had about 20million unemployed,of which almostfour million were in Germany. The German EU presidencyduring thesecondhalf of the year willbe characterised by measures for an economic andemployment upswing. German economic indicators show declining jobless figures, moderate pay rises of hardly more than 2 per cent,and annual retail price inflation limited to3 per cent. New orders in the key building industry at the beginning of ,1994 were five per cent higher in the old Federal states, and 25 per cent higher in the new ones, than at the same time in the previous year. Productivity per employeein the chemicals industry was 10 per cent greater than the year before. The successis due to three actors:politics, which is responsible for favourable legal framework conditions; employers in private industry, who provide innovations and investments; and the trade unions which, by moderate pay demands, give priority to growth of productivity. In this constellation,those involved are simultaneously team-mates and opponents - and can only be the one when at the same time they are the other. The role of the trade unions and employers is anchored in Article 9 of the German Constitution. The right to strike and lock-out is guaran- teed, but they are practised more seldom in Germany thanin othercountries. Accordingto GeorgLeber, the former chairman of the building workers' trade union and Federal minister, the unions and management pursue a businesslike balance of interests "with an eye on a paramount public interest". With its Law to Promote Economic
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