Prisoners' Union / nationwide organization

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The prisoners' union / nationwide organization ( GG / BO ) is a German prisoners ' union, i.e. an association that campaigns for the workers' rights of prisoners in German prisons . According to its own information, it was founded in 2014 in the Tegel correctional facility . Like other German trade unions , the GG / BO has the legal form of an unregistered association. It was occasionally referred to as the world's first prisoners' union of its kind, although similar organizations were founded in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as early as 1968, and in the USA the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) with its section Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) in particular organized imprisoned workers.

Basics and goals

The prisoners' union / nationwide organization (GG / BO) is based on Article 9 of the Basic Law , which in paragraph 3 includes the right to “form associations to maintain and promote working and economic conditions” ( freedom of association ). The central demands of the GG / BO are the introduction of the general statutory minimum wage for working prisoners and the inclusion of prisoners in the statutory pension insurance . Ultimately, the GG / BO strives for full freedom of trade unions for prisoners in German prisons.

In ver.di there are already contact for working inmates . However, nothing is known about active union work in prisons.

Foundation, organization and development

According to its own information (as of May 2015), the GG / BO has 700 members in over 50 prisons throughout Germany, although no further details are known about membership status and membership rights. In addition to the Tegel JVA, the Landsberg correctional facility and the Willich correctional facility are mentioned as institutions with a high degree of organization.

In July 2015, the GG / BO reported that 25 women imprisoned in the Willich II prison (North Rhine-Westphalia) had now joined the GG / BO, which would correspond to an organization level of around 15 percent.

Mehmet Aykol (imprisoned in Tegel JVA) is the “legal secretary” of the prisoners' union. According to the newspaper Jungle World , the law enforcement authorities in Berlin presented him with the alternative of giving up his trade union function or losing the detention that Aykol was to receive after 18 years in prison. Aykol opted for the union and refrained from detention.

After prisoners in the Tegel JVA objected to the withholding of union material, the Berlin regional court confirmed this practice and invoked the protection of the prisoners. In its justification it wrote: "The prisoners cannot evade the information and advertising measures imposed on them in the same way as people living in freedom."

The GG / BO criticizes the fact that the German prisons have "increasingly become production facilities and factories" over the past few decades. There was no longer any question of sticking bags and twisting pens together. “Prisons are special economic zones in which social and labor standards do not exist or only inadequate,” writes the prisoners' union.

Hunger strike in the Butzbach prison

Oliver Rast , spokesman for the GG / BO announced on December 2nd that prisoners in the Butzbach correctional facility had started a hunger strike . The background is their situation in the prison. The prisoners came to an internal paper of the prison from which it emerged that the labor costs for the jumping mats produced are 0.1 to 0.32 percent of the sales price. 130 of the 500 or so inmates in the high-security prison had signed a petition calling for, among other things, “full freedom of trade unions behind bars”, the payment of the minimum wage for their work in the institution's own workshops, and admission to the pension scheme. The Wetterauer Zeitung reported that a union representative in the Butzbach prison was said to have been put into individual arrest for his commitment. Jürgen Rößner, the GG representative, has been locked in for 23 hours since the end of September 2015, said Oliver Rast. A spokesman for the Hesse Ministry of Justice denied this. In December, according to unconfirmed information, 4 to 5 inmates were on hunger strike.

“Pure refusal to work would be legally regarded as 'mutiny' because of the compulsion to work, which is severely punished. During the hunger strike, the prisoners are released from their duty to work for medical reasons, ”said Jörg Nowak, explaining the form of the protest.

Exactly how many inmates are on strike was not clear, as only postal communication is possible in prisons. Oliver Rast feared that the prison management would exert massive pressure on the strikers. "This is where internal prison systems come into play," he tells the taz.

Political reactions

After some of the inmates of the Butzbach prison went on hunger strike, the left in the Hessian state parliament supported the demands of the GG / BO. "The fact that the prisoners are going on hunger strike does not throw a good light on Justice Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann," says Marjana Schott ( Die Linke ), spokeswoman for her parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament. There is no comprehensible reason whatsoever why contributions to the prisoners' unemployment insurance are paid, but not for their pension insurance. A progressive minister would campaign for the topic, said Schott.

A "network for the rights of imprisoned workers" as a solidarity group was founded in 2015. It includes Jörg Nowak (University of Kassel), Alexander Gallas (editor of the Global Labor Journal), Simon Aulepp (GEW district association Kassel-Stadt), Stefanie Hürtgen ( University of Salzburg) and Michael Fütterer (Tie global).

The organization received the Fritz Bauer Prize 2016 from the Humanist Union in recognition of its “efforts to achieve adequate standards of prison labor”.

Definition dispute and political reactions

The prisoners' union / nationwide organization is not recognized by the prison authorities as a "real union " because prisoners are not employees and the prisoners can exert influence on prisoners' co-responsibility (see Section 160 Prison Act (StVollzG) ), often in the form of prisoners ' representatives. In addition, prisoners are obliged to work under Section 41 of the StVollzG. Irrespective of fundamental considerations, the head of the Willich prison, Peters, also sees the union as a "dubious association". The Ministry of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia is of the same opinion. The Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia does not consider a union of prisoners "absolutely necessary," as a spokesman said.

Berlin's Justice Senator Thomas Heilmann (CDU) said in autumn 2015 that the prisoners' union would not be recognized as a negotiating partner; the prison inmates had no employee status and would therefore not fall under the right of association. The have Johannes Feest and Thomas Galli objected because it depends not on the formal definition of a worker, but only on "whether it comes to the representation of interests, which are typically invoked by workers" (Feest / Galli: prisoners unions. Considerations of a not entirely new phenomenon ").

In terms of regulatory policy, it is not a trade union, explains Sandro Witt from DGB Thuringia. “If I'm to put it right now, it's an attempt to organize. This is protected by Article 9 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law. But it is a form of organization that is not yet a union. But it is a community of interest " , he told the MDR.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Landtag North Rhine-Westphalia, 16th electoral period: Printed matter 16/7436: Small question 2942 .
  2. ↑ From the social security obligation to the minimum wage to full freedom of trade unions behind bars ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 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. , Founding declaration of the GG / BO - May 4, 2015. Accessed on May 8, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gefangenengewerkschaft.de
  3. ↑ From the District Court Krefeld the organization was as unincorporated association classified, without it there would be a final or binding legal determination, see. also OLG Hamm, decision of February 6, 2015 - 1 Vollz Ws 180/15
  4. ↑ Philip Oltermann: Inmates at Berlin Tegel jail set up world's first union for prisoners In: The Guardian - Website, May 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ About | Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Retrieved on August 26, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Overcoming fractionation . Oliver Rast on the demands and plans of the prisoners' union. In: Neues Deutschland, December 30, 2014, p. 6.
  7. ^ Prisoners also want statutory minimum wage In: Welt.de, January 25, 2015.
  8. ↑ Jannis Brühl: Minimum wage behind bars In: süddeutsche.de, January 28, 2015.
  9. ↑ Angelika Kahl: From prison to poverty in old age In: Bayerische Staatszeitung, February 6, 2015.
  10. ↑ Martin Herceg: Inmates want more money In: Badische Zeitung, February 15, 2015.
  11. ↑ Laura Beusmann: Union behind bars. In: Friday, December 23, 2014, p. 19.
  12. ^ Justice in Thuringia - This is what Germany's first prisoners' union demands ( Memento from October 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), MDR from September 30, 2015
  13. ↑ The expansion and anchoring of the GG / BO in prisons in the Federal Republic of Germany continue unabated. ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 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. , GG / BO press release from May 14, 2015, accessed on May 17, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gefangenengewerkschaft.de
  14. ↑ Union Busting pure ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 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. , Press release from the prisoners' union / nationwide organization - May 4, 2015. Accessed May 8, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gefangenengewerkschaft.de
  15. ↑ Information from the GG / BO archive link ( memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gefangenengewerkschaft.de
  16. ↑ quoted from Jungle World No. 21 http://jungle-world.com/artikel/2015/21/51990.html
  17. ↑ fr-online.de ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) jva-butzbach-gefangene-im-hungerstreik
  18. ↑ http://www.wetterauer-zeitung.de/Home/Kreis/Staedte-und-Gemeinden/Butzbach/Artikel,-Hungerstreik-in-JVA-Politologe-verteidigt-Mindestlohn-Forderung-fuer-Haeftlinge-_arid,610058_costart, 4_regid, 3_puid, 1_pageid, 73.html
  19. ↑ http://www.hna.de/politik/butzbach-gefangene-endung-mindestlohn-5917740.html
  20. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 18, 2016 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hessenschau.de
  21. ↑ http://www.wetterauer-zeitung.de/Home/Kreis/Staedte-und-Gemeinden/Butzbach/Artikel,-Hungerstreik-in-JVA-Politologe-verteidigt-Mindestlohn-Forderung-fuer-Haeftlinge-_arid,610058_costart, 3_regid, 3_puid, 1_pageid, 73.html
  22. ↑ http://www.taz.de/!5257772/
  23. ↑ http://www.taz.de/!5257772/
  24. ↑ http://www.labournet.de/branchen/sonstige/knast/ab-1-dezember-2015-hungerstreik-fuer-mindestlohn-in-der-jva-butzbach/
  25. ↑ Humanist Union. Bürgerrechtsorganisati: Humanist Union: Publications: Announcements: Archive: Number: Number Detail. In: humanistische-union.de. September 17, 2016, accessed February 6, 2017 .
  26. ↑ Prisoners in NRW demand minimum wage In: Rheinische Post online, January 25, 2015.
  27. ↑ Die Welt https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article136755533/Auch-Haeftlinge-wollen-gesetzlichen-Mindestlohn.html
  28. ↑ http://jungle-world.com/artikel/2015/21/51990.html
  29. ^ Forum penal system 1/2016, 20-22, 21
  30. ^ Justice in Thuringia - This is what Germany's first prisoners' union demands ( Memento from October 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), MDR from September 30, 2015