Status: 03.09.2022 23:13
As chairman, Schulte reformed the DGB and was considered a tough but pragmatic negotiator. His course was not without controversy within the unions. He has now died at the age of 82.
The longtime chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Dieter Schulte, is dead. He died on Saturday night at the age of 82, as the DGB announced on its website. Schulte led the trade union federation from 1994 to 2002.
Born in Duisburg, he grew up in a working class household and trained as a bricklayer. In 1959 he switched from construction to the steel industry and worked his way up from burner to quality observer at Thyssen before pursuing a career as a trade unionist. He was considered pragmatic, diplomatically skilled and a tough negotiator in collective bargaining disputes.
Schulte was considered a reformer in the DGB
In 1994 he was elected head of the DGB after his predecessor Heinz-Werner Meyer died. Within the trade union federation, he strengthened the role of the DGB in relation to the individual trade unions.
Schulte was praised from outside for his pragmatism and his willingness to talk about issues that were critical for the unions, such as reduced working hours without wage compensation, Saturday work and temporary contracts – but he was also criticized within the DGB. Union representatives agreed with the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and employers’ president Dieter Hundt on restrained wage demands and the redistribution of work in the fight against unemployment.
After his second term, Schulte did not run again. In 2003 he became deputy chairman of the SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation.