What do business leaders think of the unions? On Tuesday March 03, to present the new “Pact for Industry’s future” that groups the highest level social partners including the Ministry of the Economy, Germany’s top economics daily publication Handelsblatt dedicated two full pages of interview, not with the Minister Sigmar Gabriel, nor with the President of the German Federation of Industry, Ulrich Grillo, but instead with the head of IG Metall, Detlef Wetzel. Mr. Wetzel is considered as instrumental in creation of the pact that aims to create a high performance German industrial sector out of a situation where it is currently resting on its laurels and has already lost ground in several domains including the Internet, Telecoms, and Electromobility.
Germany: an ‘employers’ study concludes that trade unions have indeed made a comeback
Since the financial crisis back in 2006, German trade unions have extended both their presence in German companies and their political influence at national level. They are now reconciled with their ‘family member party’ the Social Democrats (SPD) and have also reached out to the conservative ‘bloc’. These are the conclusions of a report published on Wednesday March 04, by the highly respected Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) that receives financing from businesses. The report also reports the union comeback, as still fragile and argues that continued success will depend on attracting and keeping the female and youth cohorts. The report is published at the same time as parliament is debating the controversial ‘Law on a single union’ in companies that is dividing union opinion and may also be ultimately declared unconstitutional.
Do you have information to share with us?
What you absolutely must read this week
The essential content of the week selected by the editorial team.
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
What readers clicked on the most last month.
What readers clicked on the most last month.