Which type of organisation is best suited to represent employees before management and a federation of enterprises? The large majority union or the small corporate body? And is co-habitation between both of these structures possible or even welcome? Today in Germany these fundamental questions for social peace and the fluid operation of co-management within German businesses are more than ever headline news. After four years of waiting the government is ready to deliver a draft bill on the principle “one company, one collective agreement” (Tarifeinheitsgesetz) and it will be presented in October 2014. At the same time two minority company trade unions are creating a stir. In the German railway company Deutsche Bahn ,the German Train Drivers Union (GDL) went on strike to oppose management requirements and those of their “big brother” union the Railway and Transport Union (EVG). In Lufthansa (German airline company) it is the small pilots union that leads negotiations. Elsewhere, inter-union conflict is common as can been seen with a recent judgment in the insurance world or with the quarrel in the aeronautical sector.
The reversal in the law. A decision taken in January 27, 2010 by the labor federal tribunal for (Case No. 4 AZR 549/08 (A), cf. article 100511) is the catalyst for the German government legislating on company trade unions. This is a spectacular reversal in the legal situation in force up until now. Unlike in recent years federal judges now express the view that the level of implantation and the size of the union in a company cannot be the only criteria for guaranteeing a union a monopoly role in negotiations. Similarly they believe that freedom of association and the right to strike as guaranteed by the Constitution should also be respected.
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