Gathered at their annual conventional on November 24-25 in Frankfurt, the 458 IG-Metall delegates elected, as expected, Detlef Wetzel, former number 2, as the leader of the organization. He is replacing Berthold Huber, who has been there since 2007. There shouldn’t be a radical change in the policy, as Huber and Wetzel have been working hand in hand for years. Together, they have renewed and redirected the largest sectoral union in the world. As a result, the number of members is growing again after years of hemorrhage. The fight against social dumping, enhanced rights of inspection for works councils in the company’s governance and international expansion are some of the new President’s priorities. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the SPD, both talked to the metalworkers on Monday morning. While Gabriel said he wouldn’t sign a government agreement if unions don’t support the negotiated program, Merkel explained that she would make sure supervision of the development of temporary work and service provisions contracts would be improved, to stop favoring wage dumping. (Ref. 130739)
Smooth transfer between two reformers. Berthold Huber is definitely a “great man in the worker movement,” declared on Monday Rainer Dulger, head of the Gesamtmetall employers’ organization, paying tribute to the work Huber did for 6 years as the union’s leader. On Monday morning, IG-Metall, the union with 2.3 million members in the metal, electrical engineering, machine-tool, textile and obviously auto industries, elected its new management as anticipated.
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