After Sophie Binet at the CGT and soon Marylise Léon at the CFDT, the feminization of the leadership of the major trade union centres crossed the Rhine. Barring an unlikely dramatic turn of events, Christiane Benner will be elected at the end of October at the head of IG Metall, which claims to be the largest branch union in the world, with its 2.1 million members.
His predecessors had the profile of the position. Tool makers, fitters or blacksmiths: the training of the former IG Metall chiefs qualified them automatically for the function. Before becoming head of the powerful German organization, Christiane Benner can boast, by way of industrial experience, to have worked for five years at a machine tool manufacturer. As a bilingual secretary.
Yet it is this 55-year-old woman who should be this fall by the union delegates gathered in congress. Twelfth holder of the post since the war, she will be the first president of "IG". This slender woman writes history in...
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