There has always been a lot of space under the umbrella of the German Trade Union Federation: the chemical workers and teachers, the construction workers and bus drivers, the gardeners and the mail carriers, the women and men from the cheese counter as well as those from the sausages, the actuaries and the printers as well the railway workers of Germany. In the city and district of Rosenheim alone, the DGB represents around 12,000 members, but an increase like the last one was really not to be expected there. Among the newcomers are some who pursue the military profession in the broadest sense, as well as many nannies and numerous employees from the food and transport industries, but again no train drivers. Besides, all these bees may fill out honeycombs, but certainly not a membership application.
It would be refreshing for the DGB in Rosenheim to have a few thousand real workers in its ranks again. On the other hand, bees would probably not be very exemplary members either. They are supposed to be hardworking. But you could also be hard-working in a 35-hour week, and so far there has been no such thing as co-determination in the bees. Even the DGB will hardly succeed in pushing through a works council election or even just a works meeting on the floor – not to mention a few positions on the supervisory board. In that case, none of this would even fail on the board of directors, although neither an old patriarch is in charge, nor a CEO who demonstratively has no ties, but a boss. But at best it is pseudo-independent, knows nothing but work and lays eggs like a machine.
Perhaps, from a trade union point of view, the bees are even lacking in the very basic, namely solidarity – at least if this should be more than a mere biological program. At the inauguration of the new beehives at the Rosenheim trade union building, intended as a contribution to climate protection and biodiversity, there was still a lecture entitled “Bees and trade unions – living together in solidarity”. But maybe now at least the DGB in Rosenheim will refrain from exploiting its new working class.