German unions seek reassurance

Following the unexpected victory of the social-democratic and green coalition in Germany's elections in September, the unions are calling for the re-elected government to keep its promises on collective bargaining.

One of the key concerns of the unions is to maintain the present system of collective bargaining, under which local changes to nationally agreed terms and conditions may only result in improvements for the workers involved.

During the election campaign the centre-right CDU/CSU coalition had been arguing that any variations from nationally agreed terms should be possible at local level. This prompted a bitter response from the German union confederation the DGB.

Unions fear that if local variations were to be allowed, workers in individual plants would be put under extreme pressure to accept worse conditions if their companies ran into difficulties.

The unions are already concerned that the previous labour minister, Walter Riester, who was a former leading figure in the IG Metall engineering union, has lost his job in the new cabinet. Klaus Zwickel, the current president of IG Metall, has called on his successor "to implement in full the promises" on collective bargaining made during the general election campaign.

The coalition agreement, the basis of the government's programme, leaves the issue uncertain. While it appears to support the existing system, it also suggests that national agreements should just be used to set minimum standards, allowing differences at plant level to be taken into account.