IG Bau-Steine-Erden

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The industrial union Bau-Steine-Erden (IG BSE) was a trade union of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) based in Frankfurt am Main . On January 1, 1996, it merged with the horticultural, agricultural and forestry union, which had already been dissolved , to form the new IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt .

prehistory

Former federal building of the General German Construction Workers' Association in Hamburg

The history of the labor movement in the construction industry goes back to the 19th century. In 1868 the "General German Carpenters Association" was founded, and one year later the "General German Masons' Association" was founded. Both saw themselves as political fighting groups in the service of the workers. With their support funds, they gave workers financial support during strikes and helped them in old age, with disability, illness, death and other emergency situations.

In the German Empire, the "German Construction Workers Association" founded in 1911 was one of the strongest unions. He led around a third of all labor disputes, although only 16 percent of all workers worked in the construction industry. In 1923 the construction workers' association merged with the "Central Association of Glaziers and Related Professional Members of Germany" and the "Central Association of Potters and Professional Members of Germany" to form the "German Building Trade Association". Other associations later joined. The temporary end came in 1933: the National Socialists smashed the trade unions and forced them into the fascist German Labor Front . It was only after the German defeat in World War II that independent trade unions could be founded again.

history

After the end of World War II, construction unions were first approved at the local level. Between 1946 and 1947 seven state construction unions were founded in the occupation zones of the Western powers. In 1948 the break with the western trade unions became apparent in the Soviet occupation zone. The trade unions in the eastern zone demanded "the abandonment of the outdated trade union traditions in wage and collective bargaining policy". and gave up their role as representatives of workers' interests vis-à-vis employers. The freely elected works councils were dissolved and replaced by works union leaderships. In the west, after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the regional construction unions joined forces on 27/28. August 1949 together - at the unification trade union day in Karlsruhe, the Bau-Steine-Erden trade union was formed . At the ordinary trade union day in Fulda in 1951, it was decided to rename the industrial union Bau-Steine-Erden (IG BSE).

From 1949 the IG BSE used the economic boom to push through wage increases. By 1953, the construction union had already concluded more than 700 collective agreements. In many sectors of the construction industry, incomes doubled within a few years.

In the post-war period, the IG BSE was heavily involved in promoting housing construction and was, among other things, a member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Produktktiv refugeehilfe eV from 1949 to 1952 . V. and thus actively participated in the organization and implementation of the first and largest housing construction program in West Germany, the ERP program 10,000 refugee apartments in Schleswig-Holstein .

A great success of the IG BSE was the introduction of the bad weather allowance in 1959. Until then, it was normal for employers in construction to give their workers notice without notice as soon as winter set in - and then hire them again in spring. As early as 1953, Georg Leber had given a detailed speech at the trade union day in Hamburg on "Weather-related failures in the construction industry" and thus focused on the goal of weather-independent employment in the IG BSE. Georg Leber became federal chairman of IG BSE in 1957 - two years later the union concluded a collective agreement with employers "to promote the maintenance of employment during the winter period".

In 1961, IG Bau-Steine-Erden's demand to force non-members to pay contributions to the union through a “benefit compensation fund” caused a sensation. The attempt to eliminate the negative freedom of association was unsuccessful.

In order to enable employees in the construction industry to travel on vacation, the IG BSE founded the non-profit recreation organization (GEW) in 1963 with the main association of the German construction industry. From 1967 the GEW opened numerous holiday hotels and centers in which IG BSE members could book their vacation on favorable terms.

In the 1980s there was an internal trade union dispute over the course of the IG BSE. A group around the Stuttgart district manager Gerhard Schramm criticized the IG BSE's policy as not being left enough and called for a change of course. In order to keep Gerhard Schramm out of the federal executive committee, the executive committee was reduced from nine to seven members at the 1982 trade union day. A Stuttgart union member sued against this decision and the election of the board. The Federal Court of Justice largely upheld the complaint and ruled that the election of 5 of the 7 board members was invalid. The election of Konrad Carl, however, was confirmed. At the 1985 trade union convention, Konrad Carl was clearly confirmed and the Stuttgart-based company's amendments to the statutes were rejected.

In 1990 the IG BSE implemented the collective agreement on the 39-hour week in the construction industry. In the same year the GDR trade union Bau-Holz industrial union was integrated into IG BSE.

Chairwoman of the IG Bau-Steine-Erden

Georg Leber (1973)

Other members

  • Werner Bowing . The socialist and pacifist had been a member of IG Bau-Steine ​​Erden since 1950 and became its full-time employee in Wuppertal in April 1956. In May 1958 he was elected for the first time as managing director of the Solingen administrative office of IG Bau-Steine ​​Erden. He held this office until October 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Renzsch, craftsmen and wage workers in the early labor movement , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980, pp. 35–69: Chapter "Social situation and organizational striving of construction workers"
  2. ↑ a b Data and facts on the history of the building trade union
  3. ^ Deutscher Baugewerksbund in the archive of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
  4. ↑ Karl Anders: Stone by stone. The people of Bau-Steine-Erden and their unions 1869 to 1969, Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen, 1969, page 241
  5. ↑ Karl Anders: Stone by stone. The people of Bau-Steine-Erden and their unions 1869 to 1969, Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen, 1969
  6. ↑ a b c Heribert Kohl: Build on trust. 125 years of the building trade union, Bund-Verlag, Cologne, second edition 1994.
  7. ↑ Reinhold Nimptsch: “Productive refugee aid from the trade unions: New organizational methods for the construction of 10,000 apartments”; Cologne 1950; P. 38 ff
  8. ↑ * Working group for contemporary building e. V. (Eds.): Johannes Scharre / Ulrich Haake: "The construction of 10,000 refugee apartments in Schleswig-Holstein (ERP special program 1950) - results, methods, experiences and conclusions", / Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Produktiv refugeeshilfe e. V .; (Research report on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Housing No. 148 (2404/05)); Building research report of the working group for contemporary building e. V. No. 2, Kiel 1952
  9. ↑ Federal Archives
  10. ↑ Konrad Carl in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)