German Trade Union Approaches to Migration and Migrant Workers from Past to Present

Abstract

6 | International Union Rights | 28/1 FOCUS | MIGRANT WORKERS AND TRADE UNIONS German Trade Union Approaches to Migration and Migrant Workers from Past to Present Despite migrant workers having a continuous presence in the German labour market since the 1950s, the children and grandchildren of these guest workers are often still regarded as second-class citizens and, in many cases, still struggle to access German citizenship. The far-right AfD’s entrance into Germany’s parliamentary landscape has shifted politics of citizenship even further to the right, with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government now having passed numerous bills curtailing the right to asylum, restricting dual citizenship and thus negatively impacting on integration policies. It is against this background that this article seeks to outline German trade unions approach to migrant workers from the first guestworker programmes to today, underlining some of the persistent challenges which German trade unions have overcome in the past, face at present and will have to address in years to come. The history of migrant workers in post-war Germany After World War II, West Germany initiated socalled guestworker programmes with Italy (1955), Greece and Spain (1960), Turkey (1961), Portugal (1964), Yugoslavia (1968), and Tunisia (1971). These were designed to stem the labour shortage during the long economic boom in the expectation that these workers would return to their home countries when their labour was no longer required. During those years, more than three million guestworkers commonly known as ‘Gastarbeiter’ - would come to Germany to work, many of whom would stay for generations to come. From the very beginning, trade unions were integrated into the management of this programme. The German trade union confederation DGB, for example, was part of the Federal Labour Office’s recruitment commission. These commissions set up offices in the respective countries and handled employers’ specific requests for workers. Before setting up the scheme with Italy, a delegation of Italian trade unionists even visited Germany to inspect the labour conditions. The participation of both German and Italian unions underlines how unions were regarded as essential to ensure stable industrial relations. Once the ‘Gastarbeiter’ had arrived, German unions’ institutional embeddedness allowed them to negotiate the same collective agreements for the new foreign workers. At the same time, the system of codetermination meant that guestworkers had the same right as their German colleagues to participate, vote and stand for works council positions. However, data from the time suggests that a representation gap persisted even in those companies that predominantly employed guestworkers. But unions and works councils also developed ‘international solidarity’ in the respective migrant communities by mobilising their members and demonstrating against the dictatorships in Portugal or the military junta in Greece amongst others. Yet, beneath the surface the relationship was more complex. Reminiscent of today’s debates, unions emphasised the necessity to attend to the ‘sensitivity’ of its German members. This ‘sensitivity’ to members’ concerns permitted employers to use migrant workers to create a system of differentiation between foreigner and Germans in the same company to the extent that it stratified the labour market. Guestworkers found themselves at a disadvantage within the company hierarchy. Within companies their German colleagues frequently forced them to do the hardest work as they did not have (recognised) qualifications and worked on oneyear contracts. At the same time, employers supervised workers by splitting them up into different language groups. Consequently, management could diffuse tensions within the industrial relations system, and keep wages low despite their reliance on migrant labour. Despite these structural obstacles, migrant workers often engaged in trade unions and even called for strikes, such as Ford Motors in Cologne or the migrant women workers at the auto parts company Pierburg in Neuss in the summer of 1973. Above all, these strikes would ensure that migrant workers would be integrated into the German labour movement and their work would be equally valued. Trade Unions’ Statism and the Politics of Labour Market integration As guestworker programmes gave way to freedom of movement in the European Union, German trade unions did not abandon their support for the state’s migration policies. While in the past unions were directly involved in the management of migration, their role would shift to...