An era is ending and another is starting: after leading the biggest union confederation in Germany (8 affiliated unions, 6.1 million members) for 12 years, outgoing President Michael Sommer gave his seat, on May 12, to Reiner Hoffman, who was until now the head of the powerful regional chemistry federation of North-Rhine, IG BCE. Hoffmann, 58, was elected as the new head of the DGB by an overwhelming majority (93 percent) of the 400 delegates gathered at the national convention in berlin. An ardent European, the new voice of the German union movement has spent a great deal of his career in Brussels, notably as Deputy General Secretary for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). During his general policy speech on May 13, he called on the government to stop its European austerity policy and to support a growth and employment investment program. He also announced a new initiative to strengthen co-management rights at national and European level. As head of the DGB, he wants to fight for “more Europe, and a more social Europe.”
Long-term union official. The son of a bricklayer and of a cleaning lady, from Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hoffmann was a union member from the outset. At 15 years old, one day before starting his apprenticeship at the Farbwerken Hoechst painting plant, he went to the IG BCE chemistry union to get his member’s card. That was in 1970. “My father was a construction worker, so he was affiliated with the IG BAU (editor’s note: the construction union). To me, there was no doubt that I
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