The Power of Small Trade Unions: Should the Influence of Branch Trade Unions Be Curbed?

Continued strikes at the Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa are fuelling discontent with branch trade unions. Should legislators curtail multiple collective bargaining agreements by smaller unions and their scope to take action? Norbert Berthold, University of Würzburg, argues in favour of multiple collective bargaining, instead of wage unity. In a world of growing economic diversity, institutions have to change. The appropriate response to a more heterogeneous mix of companies lies in work alliance agreements: multiple collective bargaining is the way forward, not wage unity. Anyone who is frightened of branch trade unions should ensure that competition in sales markets is unleashed and that the social state does not water down corporate budget constraints. Claus Schnabel, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, also sees hardly any convincing reasons why multiple collective bargaining agreements should be constrained by legislation. As long as there is no real threat to the functioning of the German system of labour relations and wage formation– and there are no signs of this – then there is no reason for legislative intervention. For Hagen Lesch, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln, by contrast, there are various disadvantages to competition between trade unions. The principle of solidarity, for example, is sacrificed and wage inequality rises. Michael Fuchs, Member of Parliament for the CDU/CSU, highlights that curtailing the power of the unions is not a question of protecting individual companies from strikes, but of protecting the economy as a whole and citizens from collateral damages in the field of public services. If the overall economic balance is at risk, the right to bargain collectively has to take a backseat. The time has therefore come to legally standardise wage unity. Klaus Dauderstädt, dbb beamtenbund und tarifunion, by contrast, argues in support of the right to collective bargaining and against legally imposed wage unity.