Munich – “Digitalization and globalization are changing the role of trade unions. We have to navigate a completely new dynamic. Jobs and the organization of work in companies will undergo profound changes. This requires a new level of quality in company, industry, and collective bargaining policies. We, the unions, want to shape the world of work to make it fit for the future. Nothing will be handed to us on a silver platter, but we will not shy away from conflict,” said Jürgen Kerner, chief treasurer of IG Metall, in his May 1 speech on Tuesday in Munich.
Kerner emphasized the unions’ responsibility to society: “Politics is treading water and too often gets lost in symbolic debates. Employers are fixated on their calculators, treating their quarterly figures as absolute. The unions’ strength lies in the workplaces. We must use this strength to help shape the future of society. We must bring our strength back to the streets. Only then will our lives be secure, just, and self-determined.”
Kerner called on companies to do more than they have so far to secure a skilled workforce in their workplaces, because changes in the world of work demand new qualifications. “We finally need genuine workforce development strategies and, above all, more money and time for training and continuing education to be prepared for digital forms of work and processes, new tasks, and business areas, and to secure employment. We must put pressure on employers; we demand that works councils have the right to initiate in-house continuing education programs.”
Kerner criticized the proposal from political and business circles for an unconditional basic income. “Mr. Kaeser makes clear what employers’ calculations are regarding the unconditional basic income when he says, ‘In the digital transformation, some will fall by the wayside because they simply can’t keep up with the pace of the world. (.) ‘A basic income is completely unavoidable.’ The underlying logic is this: Corporations lay off workers as they please, but the state must take responsibility. We will not accept this; we will not allow employers to shirk their responsibilities,” said Kerner.
Works councils have a pivotal role to play in the upcoming transformation of the world of work. That is why the results of the works council elections, which have been underway since March, are of particular importance. “It’s good for the future that the works councils of the DGB unions are so strongly represented,” said Kerner. Furthermore, he noted, they had succeeded in keeping right-wing populists out of the workplaces. Right-wing slates had run in only a few companies, where they had won hardly any seats. “The fact is: Right-wing populists have no solutions for people’s concerns and hardships. There are no answers from the past to today’s questions. We—the works councils, staff councils, and employee representative bodies, backed by strong unions—are the ones developing competent solutions. True to the May 1 motto: Solidarity – Diversity – Justice.”
