Bavarian employers' and trade associations merge

December 1997 saw the merger of the peak employers' association and peak trade association in the German federal state of Bavaria. The new association of Bavarian enterprises is called Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft.

On 24 November 1997, the general meeting of the peak employers' association (Vereinigung der Arbeitgeberverbände in Bayern, VAB) in the federal state (Land) of Bavaria decided to merge with the Bavarian peak trade association (Landesverband der Bayerischen Industrie, LBI). The new Landpeak association for Bavarian enterprises is called Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (VBW). On 17 December the constituent assembly of the VBW elected Erich Sennebogen as president.

In Germany, employers' interests are represented by a three-tier system:

• the chamber system, with its peak association the German Association of Industry and Commerce (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelstag, DIHT), represents the general economic interest of the enterprises, and performs semi-governmental tasks;

• the trade associations, with their peak association the Federation of German Industries (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, BDI), represent their members in the field of economic policy, mainly to the general public and government institutions; and

• the original employers' association s, with their peak association the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände, BDA), represent employers' interests in the field of social policy, and negotiate collective agreements above company level.

There are interconnections between the BDI and the BDA in terms of personnel and in terms of national single-industry associations, as well as Land-level peak associations which perform the functions of employers' as well as trade associations and which are affiliated to both federal peak associations. At Landlevel, such "unified enterprise associations" already exist, for example, in the federal states of Hessia, Lower-Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

According to Hubert Stärker, last president of the VAB, the traditional separation of economic and industrial policy on the one side and of industrial relations, social and labour market policy on the other is outdated. The new peak association provides for better capacities for creating a countervailing power in face of the trade unions and government.