Union leader quits over merger

Herbert Mai, the president of Germany's giant public sector union (tm)TV, has stepped down following his union's less than whole-hearted backing for the planned new union, Ver.di. Despite early doubts, the union executive had voted overwhelmingly to press ahead with a merger between the (tm)TV and four other smaller German unions to create what would be Germany's biggest union, based primarily in the service sector (see Labour Research November 2000 page 8).

However, at the (tm)TV's congress on 7 November less than two thirds of the delegates voted in favour of the executive's plans. This was not enough for Herbert Mai, who withdrew his candidature for the presidency of the union, stating he could not stay on without damaging his "own credibility".

His successor, Frank Bsirske, has warned that all the unions involved needed to respond to the "signals" coming from the congress and from other unions.

(tm)TV will take its final decision on Ver.di at a special congress in March next year. At that stage the merger will need 80% backing to get through.