The outgoing IG Metall boss Hofmann has achieved many collective bargaining successes. But when it comes to a particularly controversial issue, he doesn’t see the union achieving its goal for a long time.
The current IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann is saying many goodbyes these days. In all likelihood, his previous deputy Christiane Benner will be elected as the first woman to head the powerful union on Monday, while a still uncertain period begins for the 67-year-old collective bargaining expert. Hofmann leaves his successor the unfinished fight for further reductions in working hours. The studied economist was unable to implement the 32-hour week during his eight years in office because of the Corona crisis. But the first steps have been taken. It is currently required in the steel industry.
Hofmann is used to drilling thick boards. He always used collective agreements as a tool – direct agreements between the union and employers in which the state has no say. Partial retirement, working time accounts, special rules for low-profit companies in the “Pforzheim Agreement”, a completely new pay system for the entire metal and electrical industry and collective bargaining coverage for temporary workers were already on the former Stuttgart district manager’s credit before he moved to Frankfurt to join the board.
Attentive to detail and obsessed with detail
Since then, in addition to money and working hours, Hofmann has primarily been concerned with qualifications so that employees can survive the change in their industries through digitalization and decarbonization in their jobs, if possible. In addition, from the union’s point of view, the standard employment relationship with an eight-hour day has had its day. At the same time, traditional part-time work is being questioned because it has become a career trap, especially for many women.
When it comes to collective bargaining, Hofmann is considered to be obsessed with detail and someone who calculates every last digit in his seemingly endless Excel tables. His first answer to the question of working hours, which resulted in a collective agreement in 2018, was correspondingly complex. The new additional tariff benefit (T-Zug) gave many metal workers the opportunity to choose between money and free time and thus secure shorter working hours for themselves.
In Hofmann’s opinion, the four-day week, which has been harshly criticized by employers due to the growing shortage of skilled workers, should nevertheless become the “new normal”. In the steel industry it has to come quickly because of the declining work volume. In the other sectors it is “not on the agenda today or tomorrow”, but it is the goal of IG Metall, he said in a recent interview.
Close ties to politics
Hofmann’s relationships with politics are close and reliable. The man from Württemberg moved to Berlin a few years ago and wants to calmly wait and see what awaits him after his resignation. The divorced father of one daughter will also probably hand over his position as vice chairman of the VW supervisory board to his successor Benner.
Former Labor Minister and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz recalls the close cooperation during the 2008/2009 financial crisis, when, together with Hofmann and his mentor Berthold Huber, he launched effective crisis instruments such as extensive short-time work benefits and the scrappage bonus. About his SPD comrade Hofmann, Scholz says: “His driving force is always justice – justice for the employees and for our society as a whole.”
Hofmann also worked closely with Scholz’s social democratic successors Andrea Nahles and Hubertus Heil on many social policy details and legislative processes. “Sometimes I was sure: He knew the details better than my own house,” says Nahles looking back. When necessary, IG Metall under Hofmann also clearly sided with the companies, for example in the collective demand for a reduced industrial electricity price.
Source: Stern
