DGB membership declines slightly in 2009

According to the latest figures from the Confederation of German Trade Unions, the membership levels of its affiliated trade unions decreased by 1.7% in 2009. Compared with 2008, the decline accelerated slightly. Against the background of the economic crisis, the overall decline remained modest. Moreover, some trade unions, such as the Police Union and most notably the German Union of Education, even recorded membership gains, especially among young members.

The latest figures from the Confederation of German Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) indicate that the membership levels of its affiliated trade unions dropped by 1.7% in 2009. Compared with 2008, when a decline of 1.1% was recorded, this means a slightly higher decrease for DGB. However, against the background of the economic and financial crisis, there was no dramatic slump in membership figures.

Membership losses

The detailed picture partly reflects the different exposure of trade unions’ organising territories to the economic crisis. As indicated in Table 1 below, the largest DGB-affiliated union, the German Metalworkers’ Union (Industriegewerkschaft Metall, IG Metall) with 2.3 million members, lost some 1.6% of its members. This decrease seems comparatively modest given the fact that the metalworking industry in general and the car industry in particular were particularly affected by a decline in orders and production. It can be assumed that the so-called ‘scrappage bonus’, a government financed incentive in 2009 for buyers of new cars who turned in their old car to be scrapped, and the extensive use of short-time work schemes have prevented more substantial job losses in this highly organised industry in terms of trade union representation.

Membership losses were similar in the second largest DGB-affiliated trade union – the United Services Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di), which recorded a membership loss of 1.9% – and in the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Industrial Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, Chemie, Energie, IG BCE) (-2%). More substantial membership losses were registered by the Trade Union for Building, Forestry, Agriculture and the Environment (Industriegewerkschaft Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt, IG BAU) (-3.2%) – however, the decline was significantly smaller than in previous years, reflecting increasing efforts by the trade union to organise new workers. These efforts were also particularly successful in the building cleaning industry. Of all the DGB affiliates, the union Transport, Service and Networks (Transnet Gewerkschaft, Transnet) recorded the strongest decline at -3.7%, although compared with the losses in 2008 this was slowing down.

Meanwhile, the Trade Union of Food, Beverages, Tobacco, Hotel and Catering and Allied Workers (Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten, NGG) managed to largely halt its losses, recording a 0.5% decline.