Metalworking and textiles unions to merge

In June 2000, the Austrian trade unions representing metalworking and textiles workers agreed to merge their organisations, creating the largest blue-collar workers' union in the ÖGB confederation. The merger is a further step in the reorganisation of Austrian trade union structures.

At its 1995 congress, the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB) agreed to reorganise its structure, adopting a resolution setting a goal of reducing the number of member trade unions from 14 to three, covering manufacturing, services, and the public service (AT9806192F). The latest step in this process, and an important one, came in June 2000 with the decision of the Union of Metal, Mining, and Energy Workers (Gewerkschaft Metall-Bergbau-Energie, GMBE) and the Textiles and Garments Trade Union (Gewerkschaft Textil-Leder-Bekleidung, TLB) to merge.

The two trade unions had discussed a merger or close cooperation for some years (AT9801161N). GMBE can be seen as the dominant partner in terms of both bargaining power and membership, while the metalworking industry is the pattern-setting sector in Austrian collective bargaining. In 1998, GMBE and TLB recorded memberships of 205,898 and 18,439 respectively. However, the merger was announced as a merger of equals. The new trade union is known as the Metalworking and Textiles Union (Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil, GMT). The former chair of GMBE, Rudolf Nürnberger, has been elected as chair of GMT, while Harald Ettl, former chair of TLB, has been elected vice-chair.

GMT has about 220,000 members, and will negotiate 20 collective agreements annually, covering some 300,000 employees in metalworking, mining, energy, clothing and textiles. Within GMT's domain, there are about 6,500 works councils representing the interests of employees in companies and 620 youth councils representing young workers.