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20 July, 2005
German affiliate IGBCE used an innovative collective bargaining agreement with BASF to win 500 jobs for Berlin. The jobs and a new worksite, to be created late 2005 when BASF centralizes its financial, accounting and human resources into a shared service center, were possible after IGBCE proposed a forward-looking plan to the German chemicals producer, which had been considering many different sites. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt said the social partnership the union has with BASF doesn’t just exist on paper, but has evolved into lateral thinking on how the two parties do things. The new service center “benefits everybody concerned: the people who find work (at the Berlin site), the company that can run a cost-effective business operation, and it is an important testimony to Germany’s industrial competitiveness,” said Schmoldt.