As of: January 29, 2024, 4:52 p.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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Last year's strikes are having an impact: some unions are reporting increasing membership numbers again.
Does this indicate a continuing trend?
Frankfurt - For years, unions have been losing members, but now there is apparently a trend reversal: some unions recorded a significant increase in their membership numbers last year.
The Verdi union, for example, reports that it has taken on a total of around 193,000 new members for 2023 - according to its own information, more than ever since Verdi was founded in 2001.
IG Metall experienced a similar rush with almost 130,000 new members, as did the smaller food-pleasure-restaurants union (NGG) with 20,479 increases, as the
German Press Agency
(dpa) reports.
Joining a union seems to be more of a trend again, especially among younger people, than in previous years, when membership numbers were steadily declining, with a few exceptions.
Last year, for example, the NGG achieved an increase of 8.83 percent of new members under the age of 28 compared to the previous year.
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) plans to present final figures for its eight member unions on Wednesday (January 31).
In addition to Verdi, IG Metall and NGG, the DGB includes, among others, IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (IG BAU) and the Railway and Transport Union (EVG).
A year earlier, around 5.6 million men and women were organized in trade unions under the umbrella of the DGB.
Retirement of the baby boomers is a real test for unions
However, it is not yet possible to speak of a long-term trend reversal towards increasing membership numbers, warned Verdi boss Frank Werneke.
The real test for the unions is still ahead: the retirement of the baby boomers, which will affect an enormous number of workers.
“It won’t just be about continuing to attract new members,” warns economist and tariff expert Reinhard Bispinck.
“A lot will also depend on whether the unions can keep the new members they have gained so far.” Struggling sectors such as the construction industry generally have major problems finding new members.
According to Thorsten Schulten, head of the WSI collective bargaining archive of the trade union Böckler Foundation, the unions could benefit from a fundamentally strong position of employees on the labor market.
He believes that this will be the case in Germany for the foreseeable future.
Given the continued high demand for labor, many employees are feeling a “new self-confidence” about the value of their work.
Accordingly, they now demanded appropriate appreciation.
Union membership numbers benefit from strikes
For trade union researcher Hagen Lesch from the employer-related Institute of Economics (IW Cologne), the new increases in trade union membership are not yet an indication of a lasting trend.
Last year, the unions were very successful in using their industrial disputes to recruit members.
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The strikes by Verdi and the NGG show that in a fragmented low-wage industry, the two unions have waged more than 400 industrial disputes - often achieving double-digit wage increases.
The membership numbers of the EVG railway union also benefit from strikes.
EVG reported 14,298 new colleagues last year - the second largest increase since its founding.
The efforts of trade unions and employees could also receive support from the EU Commission.
The directive aims to achieve collective bargaining coverage of 80 percent.
However, with only around 50 percent of employees, Germany is still far away from this.
In addition, this value only arises because companies bound by collective agreements apply the agreed salaries and regulations to all employees - and not just to legally entitled union members.
This is how the traffic light coalition could support trade unions
Among all employees, the unions only achieved an organization level of 17 percent, explains union researcher Lesch.
This means that around one in six employees in Germany is a member of a trade union.
Nevertheless, he advises, the state should hold back.
Strikers from Verdi, dbb and Co. © IMAGO/BeckerBredel
However, Schulten sees several areas of action for the ruling traffic light coalition that could benefit unions.
Subsidies and public contracts could only go to companies that adhere to collective agreements.
In addition, collective agreements once concluded could more easily be declared generally binding for the respective industry.
“And thirdly, the unspeakable OT memberships (without a tariff) in employers’ associations, which make collective bargaining more or less officially acceptable,” explains the WSI researcher.