2023 Union Congress That was the 2023 Union Congress

IG Metall has elected its new executive board and set its goals for the next four years: “Team IG Metall” is tackling the future in the workplace—the transition to CO2-neutral production, electric cars, and green steel—as well as digitalization. IG Metall aims to shape this transformation in a fair and socially responsible manner. To this end, IG Metall is calling for greater worker participation in determining companies’ strategic direction, as well as in investment decisions and continuing education.
 

Fair Transition – Ensuring Decent Work During Transformation

“Instead of seizing these opportunities, too many employers are cutting corners and relocating jobs,” criticized Christiane Benner, the newly elected First Chair of IG Metall. “We must stop this deindustrialization of Germany. We want to further develop industry, not wind it down. Every worker deserves a future. Through sustainable jobs—with good work and good wages. Through training.”

In addition to Christiane Benner, the delegates elected Jürgen Kerner as Second Chair, Nadine Boguslawski as Chief Treasurer, and Hans-Jürgen Urban and Ralf Reinstädtler as additional executive board members.

Christiane Benner is the first woman to take the helm of IG Metall during a time of major upheaval. Fifty percent of workers say their employer has no strategy for the green and digital “transformation.” Many workers are unsettled, feel at the mercy of their employers, and some are turning to right-wing populists. IG Metall, however, wants workers to have a say in shaping their future—and thus experience democracy in a positive way in the workplace.

IG Metall Calls for More Co-determination

IG Metall wants to shape this transition in a fair and socially responsible way. However, under current law, works councils and IG Metall can only intervene once the employer has already announced layoffs, relocations, or closures. While IG Metall is increasingly succeeding in negotiating social plans and collective bargaining agreements that also include future collective agreements—with more co-determination and concrete investment commitments—it’s still too late.

That is why IG Metall is calling for better laws to give workers more security during times of change: more worker participation, more collective bargaining agreements —and a strong welfare state: a higher basic income—without sanctions, an extension of Unemployment Benefit 1 to up to 36 months, universal health and long-term care insurance, strengthening of the statutory pension insurance system, and a clear “no” to retirement at age 67.
 

An active welfare state must promote fair restructuring

IG Metall is also calling for a more active industrial policy: more investment in infrastructure, faster expansion of renewable energy—and atransitional electricity price for energy-intensive businesses, such as those in the steel industry, until we have enough affordable solar and wind power.

While Economy Minister Robert Habeck supported the demand in his speech at the union convention, Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to commit to a transitional electricity price. Delegates from the steel industry demonstrated in the hall and symbolically presented Scholz with a bridge.
 

For More and Better Collective Bargaining Agreements

Within companies, IG Metall aims to secure more and better collective bargaining agreements, with higher wages and shorter working hours that safeguard jobs during the“transformation,”give employees more autonomy and more time for their personal lives—for example, through a 4-day workweek—which will also make companies more attractive to skilled workers.

In addition, IG Metall aims to ensure fair conditions for mobile and assembly work, as well as for new digital forms of work and artificial intelligence.
 

Strengthening the IG Metall Team in Workplaces

To achieve its goals, IG Metall aims to strengthen its presence in workplaces by increasing the number of IG Metall members and union representatives, supported by counseling, guidance, and training. To this end, IG Metall is also calling for stronger protective rights. More and more often, works councils are being attacked by employers and their lawyers. In response, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil announced a draft bill at the union convention: prosecutors are to actively prosecute the obstruction of works councils as a criminal offense.

To ensure that this transformation is fair and socially responsible, IG Metall also aims to reach out to new workplaces and new groups of workers. After all, the “transformation” is also creating new jobs—for example, in the skilled trades, in the new chip factories, or at the automaker Tesla.

“These must not become union-free zones,” demands the new President, Christiane Benner. She says it is now time to seize the opportunities presented by “transformation.” “We are committed to ensuring that everyone can live well. Join us in the climate-neutral transformation of society. Our ‘Team IG Metall’ is open to everyone—except racists, fascists, and other reactionaries. Join our Team IG Metall.”