IG Metall presents first findings of its debate on the future

In October 2001, the German metalworkers' trade union IG Metall presented the findings of a major survey of employees' attitudes on the future of work and unions and other related matters, conducted as part of the first phase of the union's 'debate on the future'. Together with selected research findings and recommendations from research institutes, the empirical results of the survey have been compiled in a report which will provide the basis for further debates and strategic decisions.

In 1999, the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union decided to hold a 'debate on the future' (Zukunftsdebatte), in order to examine the sustainability of its work in respect of both trade union activities and society as a whole, and relating to its programme and its strategic aims and targets. The objective of the debate is to develop new perspectives and strategies for the union. The debate is divided into three phases: the first phase, launched in 2001 (DE0104219F), involves a survey, conducted through 'polling weeks' (Wochen der Befragung), analysing the views of union members and non-members; the second and third phases will discuss the findings of the survey and translate the outcomes into a 'future manifesto' (Zukunftsmanifest). The whole debate will be concluded by the time of the next IG Metall congress in 2003.

The first phase has now been completed, with the publication in October 2001 of a 'future report' setting out the results of the initial research.

Structure and methodology of the survey

The 170-page report contains selected research findings and recommendations from research institutes and, as a central point, the results of the empirical research. The survey presented reflects the views of 120,000 people, garnered through a variety of different approaches and polls. In preparation for the survey, IG Metall organised 15 focus groups, 30 'biographical guideline-based interviews' (leitfadengestütze) and two online focus groups in order to set priorities.

The survey was divided into four parts:

• personal interviews with a representative cross-section of 2,792 organised and unorganised employees within the areas of activity covered by IG Metall;

• responses from 30,500 readers of the union's monthly magazine metall, who filled in a questionnaire distributed with the magazine;

• company surveys in 693 companies within the areas of activity covered by IG Metall, whereby more than 80,000 employees answered questionnaires; and

• the responses from about 2,600 people who completed an online survey on the internet.

The findings are set out under five central themes: 'future of work'; 'future of society'; 'future of politics'; 'future of the economy'; and 'future of unions'. In order to start a debate, the report sums up the outcomes in a set of leading questions and statements.

Key findings

On 22 October 2001, the president of IG Metall, Klaus Zwickel, presented the key findings of the report to the public.

Priority to secure jobs and fighting unemployment

With more than 3.7 million unemployed people, the level of unemployment in Germany is very high – and has been for a long time. Therefore it is not surprising that 78% of survey respondents view a secure job as the most important aspect of their employment. There is no significant difference in this view when the results are broken down by gender, age, employment status or region. At the same time, many responses indicate that job insecurity is widespread among employees: 6% stated that they will definitely lose their job; 15% think that this is possible; and 12% answered that it is likely that they will become unemployed. There is a significant difference between east Germany, where 20% expressed this fear, and west Germany, where 10% did so.

More than 90% of the respondents expect unions to support secure jobs and to fight unemployment. These two union tasks met with almost universal approval and were ranked above pay increases and other aims in respondents' assessment of the importance of union tasks - see figure 1 below. With regard to IG Metall's policies, 47% of respondents are of the opinion that it should find ways to fight unemployment in cooperation with companies without setting prior conditions, while 37% also support cooperation with employers, but think that employers should respect conditions specified in advance.

Fig 1. Survey respondents' views on the importance of trade unions' tasks

Employees seem to have mixed feelings regarding the current practices of IG Metall in these matters. In the representative survey, more than half of the respondents stated that IG Metall supported unemployed people, but nearly 80% expressed the opinion that the union should make more services available to unemployed people and should pay more attention to the integration of this group. Unorganised employees and those in east Germany are particularly dissatisfied with the engagement of IG Metall in this respect. IG Metall emphasises that more than 300,000 of its members are unemployed and that it is thus the largest organisation of unemployed people in Germany.

Working time policy

Mr Zwickel highlighted the survey's findings on the union's working time policy - see table 1 below - and stressed the fact that more than one-third of respondents stated that IG Metall should not support the idea of a further collective working time reduction. In his opinion, this can be seen as a clear confirmation of support for the existing collectively agreed weekly working time in metalworking of 35 hours in west Germany and 38 hours in east Germany. These working weeks are valid until 30 April 2003 and, according to Mr Zwickel, will form the framework for future collective bargaining.

At its last congress (Gewerkschaftstag) in 1999, IG Metall agreed on the target of a 32-hour week in the 2003 bargaining round and a 30-hour week in the medium term. This demand seems to find no support among the employees surveyed. Mr Zwickel thus proposed that IG Metall might concentrate on establishing an individual regulation of working time, such as shorter working time for employees in exhausting jobs, instead of fighting for a further general reduction of working time. It is also possible that IG Metall will seek paid training time in the bargaining round 2003.

However, as the survey's findings on working time are only one of many issues raised and require further discussion, Mr Zwickel emphasised that final decisions will be set out only in the new IG Metall programme. A key problem seems to be the difference between collectively agreed working time - ie the 35-hour week - and actual working time, which is often higher. Therefore, it is not surprising that many survey respondents think that IG Metall should support a cut in overtime hours and the observance of collectively agreed working time. The report also finds that many employees want regulated and 'family-friendly' working time. The authors of the study propose that IG Metall should develops a working time model which takes into account the individual needs of employees.

Table 1. Survey respondents' views on IG Metall's working time policy

Issue	IG Metall ...
.	Is doing the right thing	Should do more	Should do less	Don't know
Observance of collectively agreed working time	41	47	8	4
Further reduction of working time	37	26	30	7
Autonomous organisation of working time	38	33	18	12
Promotion of partial retirement	32	47	11	9
Promotion of part-time work in general	35	41	16	9
Reduction of overtime work	29	54	11	6

Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness

Overall, the attitude towards the current national tripartite Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness (Bündnis für Arbeit, Ausbildung und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit) (DE9812286N) is positive, with 82% of respondents of the opinion that it is important that government, employers' associations and unions work together. However, on closer inspection the report shows that there are many doubts that the Alliance has much influence on the creation of new jobs: 73% think that it is important to create jobs, but 45% believe that neither politics nor unions can influence whether the economy will create new jobs or not, while 33% think that the Alliance has only a 'cover-up' function and that it is not worthwhile.

Attitude towards IG Metall and unions in general

The attitude towards IG Metall seems to be divided - see figure 2 below. On the one hand, three out of four employees surveyed view IG Metall as more important than ever because of economic changes - 33% 'absolutely' and 44% 'more or less'. At the same time, 29% of the employees questioned stated that globalisation weakens trade unions. Therefore it is not surprising that the majority of employees have a quite sceptical view of the future for unions. Only 16% believe that the influence of unions will increase, while 43% view such a development as unlikely. Only 28% of employees surveyed in the area organised by IG Metall -36% of members but only 17% of the unorganised - are convinced that IG Metall is an important political power in society.

Figure 2. Survey respondents' image of IG Metall

The report also deals with the structure and the decline of union membership (DE0103210N) and the interest of employees in becoming a member. Asked how they would react if they were asked to become a union member (again), 5% of respondents stated that they would definitely answer positively, while 29% would perhaps do so. Only 3% could imagine being a member for a long period and two-thirds of the unorganised employees surveyed showed no interest at all in becoming a union member or working with unions for a shorter period. The report gives another reason for the difficulties in recruiting members: according to the survey, 60% of the unorganised employees stated that they had never been asked to become a union member.

Gender differences

The survey gives no general overview on differences in opinion between male and female employees, only highlighting points where there are significant differences between men and women. This is, for example, the case concerning views on the work of works councils. In general, employees view secure jobs, pay according to performance and severance pay as the three most important topics that works councils should deal with (each was identified by at least 50% of respondents). Reduction of overtime work, the reconciliation of work and family life and the creation of part-time jobs are more often mentioned by women than by men, but are low priorities for all employees.

Overall, the reconciliation of work and family life is seen as an important issue: 37% of the employees questioned stated that family-friendly working time is very important in relation to their employment and 47% expect IG Metall to support this idea. It is especially women, salaried employees and non-members who want a greater engagement of IG Metall with regard to the reconciliation of work and family life.

Commentary

The report provides interesting information on the attitudes of employees and might be useful for the further debate, not only within IG Metall but also within trade unions in general. Although a large number of non-members participated in the survey, it helps to set some priorities for the work of IG Metall in future, even it is unlikely that the translation of the opinions expressed into union practice would automatically lead to an increase in members. It would be interesting to find out whether the survey itself has already changed the image of IG Metall, especially among unorganised employees, who were included in the research. The fact that many employees have never been asked to become a union member should be taken as a central point for the debate, as the local and company-level presence of unions has declined through organisational reforms. The survey should perhaps have been linked to an organisational campaign.

The survey findings on working time policy make it obvious that this topic attracts great attention from employees, but that their preferences in some respects differ from IG Metall's guidelines. This is the case concerning a further general reduction of working time, which was agreed on at the last IG Metall congress, not only as a means of lowering unemployment but also as a way of creating a better reconciliation of work and family life and improving the quality of (working) life. IG Metall needs to find a way to combine this aim better with the preference of employees for addressing other working time issues such as partial retirement, part-time work or reduction of overtime. (Alexandra Scheele, Institute for Economic and Social Research, WSI)