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IG Metall flag in Hamburg: loss of members
Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa
Last year, the IG Metall trade union saw its membership decline for the second time in a row.
At the end of 2021, IG Metall still had around 2.17 million members, down 2.1 percent on the previous year, said IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann.
The union has long suffered from the fact that it is difficult to find new recruits.
The search is now made even more difficult by the corona pandemic.
Addressing the workforce in the companies has become more difficult, said Hofmann, and there has also been a partial job cut.
According to this, almost 2.4 percent of the jobs were cut in the metal and electrical industry last year.
The union had already lost almost 50,000 members in the previous year.
Warning against »Dismantling, Closing, Relocating«
In view of the upcoming transformation in the industry towards more climate protection, the trade union demanded more security and co-determination rights from employees from companies and politicians.
"We need this new security promise, because transformation only works with the employees, not against them," said Hofmann.
He also warned of a "dark triad of dismantling, closing, relocating."
Hofmann also welcomed the nomination of SPD politician Yasmin Fahimi for the chair of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB).
Fahimi is "an extraordinarily experienced, well-connected expert in matters of the working world".
It is also an important step for the umbrella organization of trade unions that, for the first time, a woman is at the head of the DGB in Fahimi's election.
Hofmann himself will be stepping down as first chairman of IG Metall next year.
“I will definitely be leaving at the trade union conference in 2023,” said Hofmann.
His successor has not yet been decided.
rai/kig/afp
