New agreement clarifies organisational responsibilities between DGB affiliates

In November 2000, the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) and the German White-Collar Union (DAG) reached an agreement on guidelines for cooperation between DGB-affiliated unions after the forthcoming establishment of a new Unified Service Sector Union (Ver.di) and the consequent integration of DAG into DGB. The deal seeks to clarify the responsibility for organising particular sectors and companies between DGB affiliates, in particular in "new" sectors such as telecommunications, information technology and media and culture.

At the beginning of November 2000, the trade unions affiliated to the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) and the German White-Collar Union (Deutsche Angestelltengewerkschaft, DAG) agreed on new principles for the process of cooperation amongst DGB-affiliated unions after the foundation in spring 2001 of the new United Service Sector Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, Ver.di) (DE0012295N) and the consequent integration of DAG into DGB. In order to avoid competition between trade unions, the new agreement aims to clarify the responsibility for organising particular sectors and companies of the various DGB affiliates, in particular within newly established sectors such as telecommunications, information technology and media and culture. After the DGB federal executive confirmed the agreement on 7 November 2000, the document was officially signed by the presidents of DGB and DAG on 5 December.

Principles on organisational responsibility

In the preamble to the new agreement, DGB confirms the principle of the unified trade union (Einheitsgewerkschaft) which has been the basic organisational principle of German trade unions since their reorganisation after the second world war (DE9910116F). The principle of unified trade unions means that DGB should be a common union organisation for all employees, independent of their political and religious beliefs and their occupational status. Since DGB is organised on a federal basis as a peak organisation of autonomous sectoral unions, the unified trade union principle has another core element - the principle of having only one union in each company in order to avoid competition between unions at the workplace. Moreover, given Germany's system of sectoral collective bargaining, there should usually be only one union which is responsible for negotiating the sectoral agreement.

In recent years, however, the principle of having only one union per company and sector has become more and more undermined as a result of structural changes in the economy, which have broken down the traditional sectoral demarcations and thereby brought into question the traditional sectoral boundaries of organisational responsibility between DGB affiliates. The problem is of particular importance in newly established sectors. With companies in various traditional sectors diversifying their activities into these new sectors, different sectoral trade unions have simultaneously gained responsibility in these new sectors.

The new DGB organisation agreement states that the unions want to continue with the principle of having only one union per company. Deviations from this principle should be allowed only in isolated cases and for a limited period of time. In companies whose employees are currently represented by more than one union, there should be an agreement between the unions involved in order to give full organisational and collective bargaining responsibility to a single union. DGB should create a register of companies and the trade unions responsible for them. In the event that the sectoral unions are not able to reach an agreement, DGB should start an arbitration process on the basis of established guidelines. In any case, it is forbidden for a DGB affiliate to recruit members in a company which falls under the organisational responsibility of another DGB affiliate.

If more than one DGB-affiliated union has organisational and collective bargaining responsibilities in a particular sector, all the trade unions involved should create a sectoral working group (Branchenarbeitskreis) and choose one union as the coordinating union for that sector. The latter should coordinate the activities of the sectoral working group and organise joint collective bargaining committees.

Organisational responsibilities in newly established sectors

Since the problem of trade union competition has become most obvious in newly established sectors, the DGB organisation agreement includes special provisions and guidelines for:

• telecommunications;

• information technology; and

• media and culture.

Telecommunications

Following the liberalisation of the telecommunications market, as well as the development of technological innovations (such as mobile phones), Germany saw the emergence of various new telecommunications companies during the 1990s. Many of these companies originally belonged to traditional industrial companies which diversified their activities into telecommunications. In those cases, the trade union responsible for the parent company also often automatically became the responsible trade union for the telecommunications company. In many cases, these trade unions were able to conclude company agreements, which led to a rather fragmented collective agreement structure in telecommunications - see table 1 below. In addition, there are also a significant number of telecommunications companies which have no trade union representation and are not covered by a collective agreement.