German unions face uncertainty after poll

Following the indecisive election results, which saw a startling recovery of the SPD under Gerhard Schröder, German unions face a period of uncertainty on key trade union concerns.

A meeting before the election between the DGB union confederation and Angela Merkel, whose centre right CDU-CSU party won 35.2% of the vote and on preliminary calculations is likely to have most seats in parliament, failed to reach agreement on the main points of difference.

In particular Merkel refused to move from her key demand for a new legal structure allowing plant-level agreements that could trade job protection for worse conditions than those set out in industry-level agreements. The unions fear this will lead to local negotiators being "blackmailed".

On the other hand, the neo-liberal FDP, who won 9.8% of the vote and could be part of a coalition with Schröder's SPD on 34.3% and the Greens on 8.1%, are more hostile to unions. As well as local level agreements, they also want to end the system through which trade unions are represented on the supervisory boards of major companies

Speaking immediately after the election, Michael Sommer, head of the DGB, said the confederation would not make any recommendations on possible coalitions as "the DGB is party-politically independent".

IG Metall, Germany's largest manufacturing union was less reticent. Its post-election statement expressed satisfaction that the CDU-CSU and FDP had failed. Its conclusion, taking account of the 8.7% of voter who backed the recently formed Left Party, was that "there is a majority ... for answers that are socially fair".