19 October, 2009
From start to finish of IGBCE’s Congress in Hannover last week, the focus was on youth. From leaders now taking leave who, for over a decade, have honed union policies with a keen eye to jobsite apprenticeships and training, to election on 13 October of the youngest president now inside the DGB national labour centre, IGBCE’s Fourth Statutory Congress declared that a German future – despite recent elections – will continue to have human needs prioritised above an unbridled market economy.
Convening under the banner “Think Ahead, Act Responsibly,” the Congress deftly paid homage to 14 years of a modern, amalgamated trade union that has been at the vanguard of German social thinking, while simultaneously posing a blunt challenge to a new centre-right governing coalition that a longstanding social compact will stay in place.
Newly-elected President Michael Vassiliadis, centre
With outgoing President Hubertus Schmoldt saying that Germany’s social model has withstood the financial crisis better than any profit-only market economy, newly-elected President Michael Vassiliadis defined the modern industrial society as one in which the twin pillars of co-determination by works councils and flexible, innovative collective bargaining will continue to provide workers with life-long security, and give the German youth new career opportunities.
Schmoldt, who has headed the 690,000-member IGBCE since 1997, was heralded by Social Democratic (SPD) Chairman Franz Müntefering as “a man who does not just push the task of work toward the politicians, but someone who gets in there and does the work himself.” Schmoldt himself called IGBCE a trade union of stability built on public identity and internal solidarity that has preserved and succeeded against years of neo-liberalism.
Vassiliadis, 45, said the biggest challenge in Germany is to shore up an education structure. “Our education system is in contradiction to social justice. We cannot let the wallet or your country of origin determine your educational opportunities,” he said. He also called it an opportunity for the future that half of all new IGBCE members are young workers, and that in 2010 many shop stewards will be retiring. Already, he added, some 5,500 apprentices have been elected shop stewards, accounting for 4% of the total.
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
A second-generation Greek immigrant who began his union work in IGBCE in 1986, Vassiliadis has been on the union’s six-member Governing Board since 2004, covering areas of works councils, shop steward development, trade union education, and youth activities. Originally from a Bayer plant near his home in Essen, he sits now on the supervisory boards of chemical companies BASF and Henkel, as well as serving as deputy chairman of the potash producer Kali and Salz and Evonik Steag.
With this Congress reducing the Governing Board from six to five, those re-elected include Vice President Ulrich Freese, and General Board members Edeltraud Glänzer and Egbert Biermann. Like Schmoldt, another Governing Board member who is retiring is Werner Bischoff. Peter Hausmann has been elected in his seat.
Outgoing President Hubertus Schmoldt with ICEM's Warda, Özkan, Zokwana
Responsible for collective bargaining and several other IGBCE functions, Bischoff has been the architect of the union’s unique approach to bargaining, one that has delivered results such as life-long work security, shortened work time for senior workers in coordination with creating youth opportunities, and training and apprenticeship slots in scores of companies, thus guaranteeing young workers a secure future in an industrial Germany. This success is most distinct in the country’s chemicals sector.
Schmoldt said two out of every three trainees over the past few years have joined the IGBCE, which, he added, is a testament to Bischoff and the union’s viable, functioning collective bargaining system.
The IGBCE Congress from 11-16 October covered several resolutions dealing with the financial crisis, and chartered a recruitment course, based on demographic targeting, to provide services and assistance to workers on the edges of the economy, including migrant workers.