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Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - At IG Metall in Baden-Württemberg, the corona pandemic has caused a decrease in the number of members for the first time in years.
At the end of 2020, 435,400 people in the southwest were on board, the union announced on Thursday.
That was 2.3 percent less than a year earlier.
According to the information, there were more than 20,000 new entries during the year.
But they couldn't compensate for the number of departures.
"Due to the pandemic, we have a special situation in which it was simply not possible to address it," said IG Metall district manager Roman Zitzelsberger.
"Many companies were closed or have sent their employees to the home office," he explained.
"In addition, because of Corona there were significantly fewer trainees and dual students in the companies from which we normally gain many members."
The number of employees among the members, i.e. the classic home office clientele, has increased.
Zitzelsberger said shortly after the turn of the year that IG Metall had lost members due to Corona, but did not yet give any figures.
Nationwide, IG Metall lost two percent of its members last year.
The first chairman Jörg Hofmann named the reduction of 120,000 jobs in the metal and electrical industry and tens of thousands of temporary jobs in the Corona crisis as the most important reasons for the decline in membership.
At the end of the year Germany's largest trade union still had 2.2 million members, almost 48,000 fewer than a year earlier.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210128-99-208107 / 2