Berthold Huber (trade unionist)

Berthold Huber (2009)

Berthold Huber at the Electromobility Summit 2013 in Berlin

Berthold Huber (born February 15, 1950 in Ulm ) is a German trade unionist . He was the first chairman of IG Metall from November 6, 2007 to November 25, 2013 .

education

Berthold Huber grew up with six siblings in Herrlingen near Ulm. After graduating from high school at the humanistic Humboldt-Gymnasium Ulm (he had spent two years as a boarding school student at Peutinger-Gymnasium Ellwangen ) and completing his community service , Huber completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker from 1971 . In the profession he had learned, he then worked for Karl Kässbohrer Fahrzeugwerke GmbH .

Between 1985 and 1990 he studied history, philosophy and politics at the University of Frankfurt (without a degree).

Trade unionists

In 1971 he joined the IG Metall trade union. He trained as a toolmaker and worked for the Kässbohrer company (now Evo-Bus) in Ulm. Huber was involved as a works council and became chairman of the works council in 1977.

After completing his studies, he became the full-time trade union secretary of IG Metall in 1990 and was briefly involved in building up the trade union in East Germany.

From 1991 to 1993 he was the department head of the 1st chairman of IG Metall Franz Steinkühler and then, after his resignation until 1998, he was the coordinating department head of the 2nd chairman and later Minister of Labor Walter Riester .

He then moved to IG Metall Baden-Württemberg, where he succeeded Gerhard Zambelli as district manager until 2003 . During this time, for example, the collective bargaining agreement on the general remuneration agreement (ERA-TV) was concluded in Baden-Württemberg . ERA-TV led to a fundamentally new collective agreement structure. With it, the different evaluations of white-collar and worker activities were replaced by a uniform system for all employees.

Since 2003, after a grueling leadership fight, Berthold Huber has been the second chairman of IG Metall Germany. At the trade union day on November 6, 2007, he was elected First Chairman as Jürgen Peters ' successor with 92.6% of the vote. He was deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens and Audi AG and a member of the supervisory board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, as well as deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG . After Ferdinand Piëch resigned as Chairman of the Supervisory Board on April 25, 2015, the Supervisory Board gave him the provisional management function, which he held until Hans Dieter Pötsch was elected as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. During this time, the Volkswagen emissions scandal became known.

Berthold Huber was elected President of the International Metalworkers Confederation in Gothenburg in May 2009.

Berthold Huber is counted among the reformer wing of the union. In the negotiations he led in the past, mostly innovative and flexible collective agreements were concluded, which was not always positively received, especially in the left wing of the union. Huber felt it was his responsibility to ensure a high level of collective bargaining coverage in the industries supported by IG Metall. Since this is based on voluntariness, he has repeatedly worked to balance interests. The Pforzheim Agreement of 2004, which enables a controlled decentralization of collective agreements, is significant during his collective bargaining responsibility as Vice Chairman. As first chairman, he endeavored to avoid mass layoffs during the global economic crisis of 2008-2010. The improved short-time working allowance and the so-called scrapping bonus for old cars go back to his initiative. With these measures, it was possible to stabilize employment, and in the upswing that began in 2010, the qualified specialists were fully available to companies.

In July 2013 Huber announced his resignation from the office of 1st chairman for November 2013 and proposed the 2nd chairman Detlef Wetzel as his successor. Detlef Wetzel was elected his successor on November 25, 2013 at an extraordinary trade union day in Frankfurt am Main.

Political party

Berthold Huber has been a member of the SPD since 1991 .

According to the uncontested statement of the MLPD chairman, Stefan Engel , Huber was a member “with us” until 1979, that is, apparently in the MLPD's predecessor organization, the Communist Workers' Union of Germany . However, he was then excluded.

Berthold Huber, nominated by the SPD, was a member of the 13th Federal Assembly and the 14th Federal Assembly and took part in the elections for the German Federal President on May 23, 2009 and June 30, 2010 , respectively. In 2012 he was again a member of the 15th Federal Assembly at the suggestion of the Hessian SPD .

As the first chairman of IG Metall, Berthold Huber developed a good relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel . During the global economic crisis of 2008 and the following years in particular, he was a frequent interlocutor with the Federal Chancellor, who hosted a meal in the Federal Chancellery on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

Honors

Berthold Huber has been a holder of the Baden-Württemberg Order of Merit since 2001 . On May 10, 2017, he was awarded the Saarland Order of Merit.

Web links

Commons : Berthold Huber  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Berthold Huber in the catalog of the German National Library
• Frankfurter Allgemeine : Workers leader on detours
• Süddeutsche Zeitung : I wanted the world revolution

Individual evidence

1. ↑ As such, he received an annual salary of 261,000 euros in 2011, cf. Alexander Hagelüken and Thomas Öchsner: "Why should I earn one or two million?" In: SZ of February 11, 2011 .
2. ↑ Berthold Huber in Who's Who
3. ↑ FAZ of February 1, 2005: "There are no longer working hours at Siemens"
4. ↑ Profile on the IG Metall website ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Profile on the website of the International Metalworkers Union
6. ^ Spiegel Online
7. ^ Spiegel Online
8. ↑ Jungle World from June 15, 2006: Capitalism is not big on it. ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Love goes through the stomach
10. ^ Announcement of awards of the Saarland Order of Merit . In: Head of the State (ed.): Official Journal of the Saarland Part I . No. 21 . Saarbrücker Zeitung Verlag und Druckerei GmbH, Saarbrücken May 24, 2017, p. 510 ( saarland.de [accessed June 28, 2017]).