Jörg Hofmann had a plan: the IG Metall boss wanted to do better than many powerful people. The 67-year-old wanted to arrange his successor early on so as not to weaken the largest German union through competition between different candidates. Hofmann therefore planned with a dual leadership of the two promising candidates Christiane Benner and Roman Zitzelsberger. But now the Baden-Württemberg district manager Zitzelsberger Knall is retiring – and the largest German union is experiencing the mess that Hofmann wanted to avoid.
Zitzelsberger justified his withdrawal with health. In tough negotiations last year, he got 8.5 percent more wages and an inflation premium for four million employees throughout Germany, thereby strengthening his claim to Hofmann’s successor. After the heavy collective bargaining round and “a large number of difficult issues”, there was an overload reaction on a day off: “It was much more violent than anything I had experienced before – and it still has an effect today,” said the 56-year-old in an interview. So others would have to do it now. “The good news is that the doctors say: If I accept my limits, I’ll soon be my old self again.” But Zitzelsberger wants to remain district manager.
Benner would be the first woman to head IG Metall
His renunciation of Hofmann’s successor comes after the SZ reported that the plan to install an official dual leadership had failed. He would have been put on an equal footing with Christiane Benner. But there was no majority for the necessary amendment to the statutes. And internally there was criticism that such a change would give Zitzelsberger a career boost.
Christiane Benner wants to lead IG Metall as a team – but the idea of a dual leadership has failed.
(Photo: Friedrich Bungert)
Insiders now expect Benner to step up from her previous role as Hofmann’s deputy – the first woman in the history of the union. She made it clear internally that she wanted to run IG Metall as a team, independent of the statutes. Nominally, however, Zitzelsberger would have remained only the deputy post.
The case reminds some in the union of Oliver Burkard, who was once also considered the crown prince and candidate for the IG Metall leadership for a long time, but then switched to Thyssenkrupp due to a lack of concrete commitments. But it can also be heard that Zitzelsberger might have been willing to be runner-up. The pressure of the past few months, the criticism of the dual leadership plan and the burden of being district manager in Baden-Württemberg at the same time and preparing everything behind the scenes for Hofmann’s successor, eventually became too much for him.
“The board has no plan B”
And now? Who makes the nominal Benner Vice with the prospect of teamwork? It is only a few months until the trade union congress. “The board doesn’t have a plan B,” says someone close. “It was not discussed who could do it in such a case. We must not experience what happened at the German Trade Union Confederation.” At the umbrella organization of trade unions, the question of a successor dragged on tormentingly. In the end, Porzellan was smashed when Verdi boss Frank Werneke blocked the appointment of Michael Vassiliadis, head of sister union IG Chemie, who he considered too moderate politically. Werneke then also tried to prevent the appointment of the SPD politician Yasmin Fahimi – ironically Vassiliadis’ partner. It became one anyway, but until then the DGB seemed like a ship of fools.
Some in IG Metall are now emphasizing that there should never be a proportional representation solution instead of Zitzelsberger. So that no one should move up from an important national association just because they represent it. A quick replacement would be Jürgen Kerner, something like the finance minister on the board. “But would he even want to?” asks an insider. “As finance minister, he sits on the money. It doesn’t matter to him who is head of the IG Metall under him.”
The core business of a union is to negotiate higher wages for employees. That is why other district heads who have a lot of experience with collective bargaining rounds, such as Jörg Köhlinger or Knut Giesler, are now acting as co-chairs of Benner instead of Zitzelsberger. Or her younger colleagues Daniel Friedrich and Thorsten Gröger as well as the Stuttgart representative Nadine Boguslawski.
Before a generation change to someone younger, there should first be a broad debate about what IG Metall wants to achieve in the future and how it is going about it, says someone from the board. “We have traditionally not had a good discussion process on management and strategy issues in the past few decades.”
So far there has only been wild speculation as to who will be at the top. It is now important that the previous chairman Jörg Hofmann quickly presents a plausible solution. And that Zitzelsberger supports the proposal. Otherwise, the powerful people of Baden-Württemberg, who had already made friends with seeing their district leader at the head of IG Metall, could cause great unrest in the coming months. So Jörg Hofmann needs a plan – one that works better than the last one.