The chemical industry is starting collective bargaining. The union side is comparatively cautious about its wage demands. Another question has particular importance.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the first round of negotiations for employees in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries there was postponed today without success. Things will now continue on May 14th, when negotiations for all employees in the industry will continue at the federal level.
The trade union side, the chemical union IG BCE, is entering the current collective bargaining round with a demand for a seven percent wage increase. The employers’ side, the Federal Chemical Employers’ Association (BAVC), has not yet submitted a counteroffer; they point to a mood of crisis in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
“Members deserve compensation”
But for many observers, another demand from IG BCE is central anyway: the union is demanding a better position for union members in the collective bargaining agreement in the collective bargaining round. According to the company, this has so far only been available in smaller house or area collective agreements.
The IG BCE negotiator Oliver Heinrich emphasized before the collective bargaining round: “Our members deserve compensation for the fact that they have guaranteed collective bargaining peace in the chemical industry for decades. And now.” In fact, IG BCE is not considered to be very keen on strikes. The last major nationwide strikes took place in 1971 – more than 50 years ago.
The union side has not yet provided any concrete information about what this improvement should look like. But the range of options for improving the situation of union members is large – one-off payments, subsidies for company pensions or more days off would be conceivable.
Option already used at IG-Metall
The fact that the union side is deliberately holding back when it comes to the exact demand is of a tactical nature – because the better position of union members in an industry collective agreement is a hotly contested area. So far this has only been available in individual house or area collective agreements.
For example, IG Metall members receive collectively agreed additional money (T-ZUG) in companies in the metal and electrical industries that are bound by collective agreements. In the temporary employment industry, IG Metall members receive up to around 517.50 euros in additional holiday pay compared to non-members. The Federal Constitutional Court declared this possibility of a better situation to be permissible in 2018.
However, employers often equalize these benefits for all employees in order to keep the incentive to join the union low. But that is exactly the goal of IG BCE: to encourage more people to become union members.
Fight for members
According to its own information, the chemical union is still doing well – according to IG BCE, the chemical and pharmaceutical industry is one of the sectors with one of the best collective bargaining coverage nationwide. It then averages 82 percent. Unlike other unions, IG BCE has been able to more or less retain its members in recent years and, according to its own information, now has 580,000 members. This corresponds roughly to the level of ten years ago.
But overall, the unions have been struggling with a decline in membership for years. At the beginning of the 1990s, around ten million people nationwide were members of one of the unions belonging to the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), but the number has now almost halved. According to the DGB, the number of members was 5,670,000 in 2023. Last year, for the first time in almost twenty years, there were more people joining than leaving – a slight increase of around 20,000 people.
Height membership numbers, strong unions
Only where there are enough members do unions have the opportunity to exert enough pressure to negotiate really good contracts. As is so often the case, it’s about money: if the number of members falls, there are fewer member contributions that fill the strike fund or pay full-time trade unionists who are important to the organization. Trade unions are therefore increasingly trying to rely on these special conditions for members.
Employers in the chemical industry are fundamentally interested in strengthening the collective bargaining partnership. As early as 2022, the BAVC and IG BCE had agreed to strengthen collective bargaining on both sides.
But the BACV rejects the union’s current demand. The reason: “Differentiation based on union membership divides the workforce and is not accepted by employers,” says a position paper. The employers’ concern: more people leaving employers’ associations and thus even a weakening of collective bargaining agreements.
Are employers worried about “outrageous”?
The BACV sees other adjustments for better collective bargaining: “Our suggestions range from greater flexibility and less bureaucracy in our collective agreements to tax incentives for members of both sides to company events to promote social partnership,” said a spokesman tagesschau.de with.
IG BCE rejects this. Such agreements have already been made in hundreds of area and company collective agreements with tens of thousands of employees. “There was neither a mass collective bargaining evasion on the employer side, nor was a wedge driven into the workforce,” says negotiator Heinrich. Such horror scenarios from chemical employers are “simply outrageous”.
Warning strikes cannot be ruled out
If the well-organized IGBCE is successful in the field, it could be of interest to many other unions. The current round of chemical and pharmaceutical negotiations may also be of interest in other respects. Strikes could occur again for the first time.
Negotiator Heinrich has Warning strikes were brought into play in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “If we don’t come close to a deal by the end of June, then we can make our demands clear in other ways,” says the SZ trade unionist. “Employers should actually know that labor disputes are part of our toolbox.” The peace obligation in the chemical collective bargaining round ends on June 30th.