Detlef Wetzel

Detlef Wetzel (born December 27, 1952 in Siegen ) was the first chairman of IG Metall from November 25, 2013 to October 20, 2015 . From 2007 to 2013 he was Vice Chairman. Before that, he was district manager in North Rhine-Westphalia and negotiator for the collective bargaining rounds for the metal and steel industry in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Life and work

Wetzel's father was a blacksmith, his mother a factory worker. He has a sister. Wetzel first attended elementary school and then the two-year vocational school . He then completed a shortened apprenticeship as a toolmaker .

After completing his training, Wetzel worked for what was then SMS Demag AG (now: SMS Siemag ) for several years in the profession he had learned. He became a member of IG Metall at the beginning of his training. Wetzel himself became a youth representative and shop steward for IG Metall. For them he also worked as an educational advisor.

During and after his apprenticeship, he made up his secondary school diploma on the second educational path and then acquired the technical college entrance qualification in Hamburg . This was followed by a degree in social work at the University of Siegen , then a comprehensive university . He took part in various professional and trade union training courses and in 1980 became trade union secretary of IG Metall in Siegen. In 1987 he was second there and in 1997 first representative of IG Metall. Wetzel founded the employee-oriented consulting agency Siegerland Consult SIC .

In 2004 Wetzel became district manager of IG Metall in North Rhine-Westphalia .

Since November 2007 Wetzel has been second chairman of IG Metall and on November 25, 2013 he was elected first chairman. With 75.5%, he achieved the second worst election result for an IG Metall chairman since 1945 (only undercut by Jürgen Peters in 2003).

He is deputy chairman of the supervisory board of SMS GmbH and Thyssen Steel AG as well as a member of the supervisory board of SMS Siemag AG.

The hobby beekeeper Wetzel lives with his wife in Kreuztal in Siegerland .

Union work

Wetzel has been a member of IG Metall since 1969. During his training he was committed as a youth representative to improve the quality of the training. Wetzel later also worked as an education officer for IG Metall. The focus of his work in Siegen was the recruitment of members, which he made the measure of success of his work. From July 15, 2004 until 2007, Detlef Wetzel was district manager of IG Metall North Rhine-Westphalia. In this function he started the modernization offensive “better instead of cheaper” against job relocations.

In his function as Vice Chairman, Wetzel succeeded in stopping the steady loss of members of IG Metall, which had been going on since the early 1990s. IG Metall has achieved moderate annual membership growth since 2008. Wetzel introduced a modern campaign policy through which IG Metall concentrated on individual topics. With the campaign "Equal Work - Equal Wages" it was possible to put the question of remuneration in temporary work on the political and collective bargaining agenda, which led to new collective bargaining and legal regulations. As first chairman, Wetzel put an emphasis on industrial policy. He shaped the IG Metall's design mandate for the changes that are to be expected with Industry 4.0 and initiated the "Future of Industry" alliance, to which the Federal Ministry of Economics, business associations and unions have come together.

In his theses on the renewal of trade union work, Wetzel states that the social partnership has become fragile. The gainful employment is subject to precariousness through contracts for work , fixed-term contracts and temporary work . The industrial relations change through the escape of associations. The welfare state is losing its integrative power. Even shareholder - and Bonus thinking destabilize social relations within the company. The future of the trade unions will decide for him in the company. Members should not only be contributors, but above all help shape trade union policy. From his point of view, the union method " Organizing " developed in the USA represents an approach to assert oneself in a business environment that tends to be hostile.

Tariff policy

As District Manager, Wetzel achieved the collective agreement for the steel industry in West Germany from March 2005: 3.5 percent more wages and salaries. In April 2006, the pilot degree for the metal industry followed, which was adopted nationwide: 3 percent more money, a one-off payment that could be doubled, more qualifications, more pension provision. The steel deal from September 2006 brought 3.8 percent more money and an introduction to the subject of dealing with demographic change. On the IG Metall board, Wetzel gave the collective bargaining policy for temporary workers a new dynamic. For the first time, it was possible to agree on surcharges for the basic collective bargaining agreements for the industries supported by IG Metall. Another focus of his policy was the recording of outsourced areas from the metal industry, such as contract logistics. In 2015, under the chairmanship of Wetzel, IG Metall achieved improvements of 3.4% plus a one-off payment of 150 euros for the metal industry, and thus a significant increase in real wages.

Political orientation

Wetzel refused military service for political reasons, but was not recognized. In 1969 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany during Willy Brandt's election campaign and has remained a member to this day. In interviews, however, he always emphasized the distance to the Agenda 2010 measures . With the word Willy Brandts prefixed as the motto in his book Daring More Justice : “All political action must be based on realities”, he advocates a “better social market economy” and a “really activating welfare state”.

publication

• Dare to do more justice. The way of a trade unionist. Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-455-50263-3
• Work 4.0. What employees and companies have to change. Herder Verlag , Freiburg im Breisgau 2015, ISBN 978-3-451-31306-6

Web links

• Eva Völpel: "The banking sector fluctuates". IG Metall Vice Wetzel on the euro crisis. In: the daily newspaper . October 6, 2011, accessed on October 6, 2011 (interview with Detlef Wetzel about the 2011 euro crisis ). 
• Detlef Wetzel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Detlef Wetzel: Theses on the renewal of trade union work

swell

• A beekeeper for the workers . Die Zeit 8/2007, February 15, 2007.
• Agenda: More power for everyone . Financial Times Deutschland, February 6, 2006
• Kolja Rudzio, Wolfgang Gehrmann: You are the union . Die Zeit 6/2006, February 1, 2006.
• The most political task of all . In: "metal". IG Metall membership magazine, NRW edition, 9/2004
• Janko Tietz: Unions: mutual blockade . Der Spiegel 36/2007, September 3, 2007, pp. 108-110.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Report on zeit.de, viewed October 21, 2015
2. ↑ Trade union day: Detlef Wetzel elected as the new IG Metall boss . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 25, 2013.
3. ↑ IG Metall annual report 2011 - 2014, Frankfurt am Main 2015, p. 69
4. ↑ IG Metall annual report 2007 - 2010, Frankfurt am Main 2011, p. 205
5. ^ Roland Pichler: Politicians and collective bargaining partners are joining forces . In: STUTTGARTER–ZEITUNG.DE . Stuttgarter Zeitung Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. November 25, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
6. ↑ IG Metall annual report 2011 - 2014, Frankfurt am Main 2015, p. 136
7. ^ IG Metall annual report 2011 - 2014, Frankfurt am Main 2015, p. 134
8. ↑ 3.4 percent more wages for metal workers . In: tagesschau.de . Northern German Radio. February 24, 2015. Accessed March 10, 2019.
9. ↑ Detlef Wetzel: Dare to do more justice ; P. 5.
10. ↑ Detlef Wetzel: Dare to do more justice ; P. 227.