Dieter Schulte (trade unionist)

Dieter Schulte (born January 13, 1940 in Duisburg ) is a German trade unionist . He was chairman of the DGB for eight years .

Live and act

Union involvement in the company

Schulte attended elementary school in Duisburg . 1954-1959 he made an apprenticeship in bricklaying . In 1959 he switched to the steel industry and initially worked as a burner at Thyssen Niederrhein AG in Duisburg-Hochfeld. He later became a quality observer at Thyssen Stahl AG.

In 1957 he joined IG Bau-Steine-Erden , then in 1959 he joined IG Metall . From 1970 Schulte exercised various union functions: shop steward, head of the shop steward, member of the local and district collective bargaining commission. It was not until 1972 that he became a member of the SPD . During the same period he began to rise as a works council and trade union official. Between 1975 and 1983 he represented the interests of the steel cookers as a works council and later as an exempt works council at Thyssen Stahl, Hamborn-Beeckerwerth plant. In 1983 he became a member of the group works council of Thyssen Stahl AG. 1987 Chairman of the Works Council at the Hamborn plant and 1990 Chairman of the General Works Council of Thyssen Stahl AG.

DGB chairmanship

In 1991, Schulte moved to the top of the internal union organization when he was elected executive board member of IG Metall and head of the branch office in Düsseldorf. On June 14, 1994 Schulte was elected as the successor to the late Heinz-Werner Meyer as chairman of the DGB at the 15th Ordinary Federal Congress of the DGB with 75.7% of the delegate's votes. After his re-election at the 16th Ordinary Federal Congress in 1998 with 72.9% of the delegate's votes, he did not stand for election at the 2002 Federal Congress.

At the head of the DGB, the pragmatist Dieter Schulte pursued a policy of centralizing trade union power. An organizational reform should in particular strengthen the powers of the federal executive board. In addition to his ability to integrate and his diplomatic skills, his opponents in terms of collective bargaining also attested to the qualities of a 'tough negotiating partner'. Schultes toughness was evident in 1996 when he organized the steel workers' protests under the slogan 'Fire to Bonn'.

Schulte was one of the reform forces in the DGB. He not only called for an organizational reform of the umbrella organization, but also referred to the dynamism of the world economy and the rapid social change, which the unions must accompany critically and constructively. In addition to his proposals for the DGB reform, he drove a joint initiative for full employment with the social partner in the Alliance for Work and pleaded for an ecological and social renewal of industrial society. He was one of the first to call for a society-wide dialogue on the reform of the welfare state and the expansion of trade union work in Europe, which is linked in detail to an investment program, a 'development program for the East', the introduction of a state industrial and technology policy and more rights of co-determination for employees would have to.

In return, however, this pragmatic reform approach was also criticized as the increasingly apolitical stance of the DGB; at a time that was perceived by many trade unionists as increasingly business-friendly. This circumstance - as well as the lack of involvement of the middle DGB functionaries in the work of the DGB top under Schulte - led Michael Sommer , who wanted to tackle these problems in particular, to be elected as his successor in 2002 with an expectant 94.1% of the delegate votes has been.

After the presidency

Schulte has been deputy chairman of the SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation since the beginning of 2003 .

The social democrat Schulte last came into the media in September 2005 when he attacked IG Metall chairman Jürgen Peters for his hidden recommendation for the Linkspartei.PDS in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. There Peters had speculated that “there could be a majority left of center on September 18.” Schulte countered this: “Peters is on the wrong track. Trade unions have to bring their positions to the parties willing to govern instead of supporting a group of dispersed people who only want to fight ideological battles on the back bench of parliament. I have considerable doubts that Peters speaks for the majority of IG Metall with this course. "

Volunteering

• Dieter Schulte is a board member of the Association Against Forgetting - For Democracy

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Schulte in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• DGB boss Schulte is thinking of a 25-hour week - 'A piece of concrete utopia' ( Süddeutsche Zeitung )