The collective bargaining parties in the chemical industry do not attract attention with riots and labor disputes.
But they certainly deserve more attention - because they reliably do a good job.
Their new collective bargaining agreement, which they worked out in just one round of negotiations, proves it once again.
Incidentally, they provide teaching material, so to speak, about how good social partnership works.
The starting point this time was extremely difficult: Hardly any other industry is so directly affected by the risks of the shaky energy supply in Germany;
Hardly anywhere else does the increase in production costs put such pressure on international competitiveness.
Nevertheless, the trade union IG BCE and the chemical employers' association have purposefully agreed on a path that immediately opens up as a plausible middle way.
Noticeable relief
At 6.5 percent by mid-2024, the so-called table-effective tariff increase will remain a visible step behind the current price increase.
However, this helps companies to secure locations and jobs if they can only pass on huge cost increases elsewhere to customers to a limited extent.
And with the two hefty one-off payments, there is still a noticeable relief for the employees.
However, the complete picture also includes the fact that the politically decided and at times controversial tax and duty exemption of such one-off payments made the solution much easier.
It establishes a good connection between the government's efforts to mitigate the macroeconomic consequences of the crisis and the responsibility of the social partners to now have a stabilizing and not a destabilizing effect.
In contrast, the trade unions in the public sector, whose clientele otherwise likes to behave in a state-supporting manner, have initially rejected this responsibility with the new wage demand of 14 percent.
Other unions, including IG Metall, take into account that the employees are currently receiving some relief from government aid packages.
However, anyone who makes a collective bargaining policy of increasing purchasing power absolute during the recession is leading – from a macroeconomic perspective – to a distribution struggle at the expense of everyone else.