This story sounds like a provincial farce.

Now she's also playing in the provinces, at least almost: in Bischofsheim near Rüsselsheim, with a service provider for car suppliers.

But can she pass as a posse?

Daniel Bremm tells it as follows: Stute Logistics employees want to draw up an election list for the new works council.

From March to May, employees all over the country re-elect their representatives in the companies.

There is already an employee representative body at Stute in Bischofsheim, which takes care of the around 130 permanent employees and temporary workers.

So far, IG Metall, whose business in the Darmstadt area is managed by Daniel Bremm together with Ulrike Obermayr, has not played a role in the committee.

What not everyone in the company seems to like:

Thorsten Winter

Business editor and internet coordinator in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

Many of them had previously worked at the former Opel service provider Rhenus SCR, which announced the end of its Rüsselsheim location two years ago.

95 employees had to look for a new job - many employees found it at Stute just a few minutes' drive away.

The representatives of IG Metall have the majority in the Opel works council, and many colleagues at Rhenus SCR also belonged to this union.

Nothing has changed in their membership after switching to the logistician, as Bremm reports.

Belonging to IG Metall in the logistics industry is not a matter of course.

Verdi generally looks after the organized employees, as is the case at Amazon in Bad Hersfeld or at Stute at other German locations.

And the,

Member meetings outside of working hours

In order to do justice to the interest of the Stute workforce, the union invited its colleagues to three member meetings in Rüsselsheim outside of working hours.

In front of the hall, however, a representative of the company drove up by taxi and observed who was going to the meeting.

The union secretary says the colleagues were "shadowed".

As a result, the other two meetings were not as well attended as previously hoped.

It is clear that not every employer likes to have an in-house works council.

But: "It's taking on proportions that are ugly," says Bremm.

When asked about the trade unionist's description, the Kuehne & Nagel group, to which Stute belongs, said only briefly: The company refrained from commenting "for data protection reasons".

And asks for your understanding.

This answer includes the case of a works council member who belongs to the employee-friendly wing of the body and whom the company is said to have terminated without notice and without notice.

This is how Bremm reports.

IG Metall now represents the interests of this man.

The employers' association Hessenmetall emphasizes that the employees alone are responsible for the choice of company.

But: "We are of the opinion that neutrality and support are correct, since a legally incorrect election is invalid," says legal expert Franz-Josef Rose.

Some employers made it unnecessarily difficult

Nevertheless, Bremm reports that some employers make it unnecessarily difficult for employee representatives before such votes.

One company initially wanted to deny IG Metall access, but he "turned it off".

In other cases, electoral boards would have to forcefully request the data of employees from companies in order to be able to reach them.

In times of widespread home work, this is much more difficult to achieve than before the pandemic.

That is why electoral boards need more data than before, but are stalled with reference to “data protection issues”.

Irrespective of this, his union in southern Hesse is currently also gaining in popularity.

In the past few months, employees at the battery system manufacturer Akasol in Darmstadt have spoken out in favor of a works council, as has the car supplier IW Gussputz in Babenhausen.

Until October there was no employee representation at Akasol.

Those workers who approached the union cited health and safety concerns, says Bremm.

As a result, IG Metall is working on forming a handful of new works councils.

She primarily focuses on medium-sized companies in which she has not previously been represented.

This is especially true for companies with 300 employees or more.

Companies of this size are usually less family-run, and employees then attach importance to a works council, says Bremm.

In principle, such a body is possible in companies with at least five employees.

Increased interest from employees is doubly good for Bremm.

His union still represents 19,500 members in southern Hesse, and the trend is falling.

Because the corona pandemic has not helped in recruiting members: "Union work is best experienced in personal contact." IG Metall, like other unions, lost popularity.

In the region, large automotive suppliers such as Continental are cutting jobs in Babenhausen, and Opel is doing the same.

That adds to the difficulty.

Nationwide, according to data from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research, the proportion of employees who work in collective bargaining companies has fallen from more than 60 percent at the turn of the millennium to less than 50 percent.

Only slightly more than twelve percent still work in a company that is bound by a collective bargaining agreement and also belong to a trade union,

But now at least IG Metall in southern Hesse senses some morning air.

"The nice thing is that younger people from 25 or 30 come to us," reports Bremm.

The elections will show whether the metalheads will soon be in charge of the Stute works council in Bischofsheim.