Schulten, Thorsten

On 9 May 1998, the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, Chemie, Energie, IG BCE) and the employers' association for the chemical industry (Bundesarbeitgeberverband Chemie, BAVC) signed new collective agreements for the 590,000 or so employees in the west German chemicals industry. With a term of 14 months, the new collective agreements provide for a 2.4% wage increase and, in addition, a one-off payment of about 1.1% of collectively agreed annual income. According to IG BCE, the overall wage increase calculated on an annual basis is equivalent to a 3% pay rise. Originally, IG BCE started the 1998 collective bargaining round with demands for 5% wage increases.

From 7-9 May 1998 the German metalworkers' trade union, IG Metall, held a conference with about 460 participants (mainly union workplace representatives and local trade union officers) to discuss the union's positions on future working time policy. In the run-up to the conference, the board of IG Metall presented a document on an /IG Metall initiative on employment and working time policy/ (Beschäftigungs- und arbeitszeitpolitische Initiative der IG Metall) which contains various proposals for short- and medium-term strategy on further working time reductions.

After the European Council had adopted its Guidelines for Member States' Employment Policies for 1998 [1] in December 1997 (EU9712174N [2]), all Member States were committed to incorporate these guidelines into National Action Plans (NAP s) on employment and to submit these plans for examination by the European Council meeting in Cardiff in June 1998. On 22 April 1998, the German Federal Government presented its National Action Plan [3] for 1998 which contains two parts: [1] http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/docs/guideen.htm [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/1998-employment-policy-guidelines-adopted [3] http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/naps/de_en.pdf

On 7 May 1998, two of the world's leading car manufactures, the German Daimler-Benz AG and the USA-based Chrysler Corporation announced the largest industrial merger in history. The new company, to be called Daimler-Chrysler, will be the world's fifth-largest car maker with combined revenues of around USD 130 billion, a combined operating profit of around USD 7 billion, and a combined workforce of more than 420,000 employees - see below.

The companies which form part of Germany's largest electrical engineering and electronic company, Siemens AG, are usually covered by the metalworking branch-level collective agreements. In recent times, however, Siemens management has developed - in particular for its service activities - various "outsourcing" strategies which at the same time allow the affected business units to depart from the legal framework of the branch-level collective agreement. In 1997, Siemens realised that within its information technology subsidiary, Siemens Nixdorf, an intended "flight" from the existing collective agreement would create considerable conflict with the metalworkers' trade union, IG Metall (DE9709130N [1]). Therefore, once Siemens had announced further outsourcing plans at the beginning of 1998, it immediately started negotiations with the union. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/no-increase-in-weekly-hours-in-siemens-nixdorf-reorganisation

On 30 March 1998, the German Food and Restaurants Workers' Union (Gewerkschaft Nahrung Genuß Gaststätten, NGG) and the employers' association for the east German soft drinks industries concluded a new framework collective agreement (Manteltarifvertrag) for about 4,000 employees. The most important part of the new agreement is a reduction in weekly working time from 40 to 38 hours. Furthermore, the new agreement contains the following provisions:

On 31 March 1998, the German construction workers' trade union, IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (IG Bau), and the three Italian construction workers' unions, Feneal-Uil, Filca-Cisl and Fillea-Cgil, signed a new agreement for closer cooperation and mutual recognition of union membership. This agreement is a reaction by the unions to the constantly growing number of posted workers in the construction industry since freedom of movement was guaranteed by the introduction of the European single market. From now on, as a result of the new agreement, all members of the Italian construction workers' unions who work in Germany, even for a short period, are to get free legal advice and aid from the German union's offices. Furthermore Italian union members who work for a longer period in Germany can easily become members of IG Bau, and vice versa. At the moment, IG Bau has about 5,000 Italian members

On 24 February 1998 six German service sector trade unions published a common draft for a "political platform on the restructuring of trade union representation of interests in the service sector" (Politische Plattform zur Neustrukturierung der gewerkschaftlichen Interessenvertretung im Dienstleistungsbereich). The unions concerned are:

According to a recent analysis by the Institute for Economics and Social Science (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI), collectively agreed basic wages and salaries in *western Germany* rose on average by about 1.4% in 1997. Since the inflation rate was 1.8% in 1997, employees had to accept an average decrease in real wages of about 0.4 percentage points. Furthermore, the 1997 growth in wages and salaries was much below the year's "margin of distribution" (Verteilungsspielraum) of 5.2% - calculated by adding the 1.8% increase in inflation to a 3.4% increase in productivity. Collectively agreed pay increases were thus the result of a very moderate wage policy, of which the current trend of not exhausting the "margin of distribution" is seen as a continuation. (DE9709232N [1]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/collectively-agreed-pay-increases-have-not-exhausted-the-margin-of-distribution

On 16 February 1998, the president of the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union (Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV), Herbert Mai, stated in an interview that in the long run there is no alternative to an extensive reduction of working time in order to solve the unemployment problem. For Mr Mai, the introduction of the 30-hour week could be an important step towards halving unemployment in Germany. In the public services sector alone, a weekly reduction of one hour in working time would have an "arithmetical employment effect", producing 135,000 new jobs. At the moment, weekly working time in public services is 38.5 hours in western Germany and 40 hours in eastern Germany.