Hans-Jürgen Urban

Hans-Jürgen Urban (2010)

Hans-Jürgen Urban (born July 3, 1961 in Neuwied ) is a German trade unionist. He has been a managing director of IG Metall since November 6, 2007 .

Life

Urban was born in Neuwied am Rhein as the son of the paver worker Friedhard Urban and the housewife Irmgard Urban . There he attended elementary school from 1968 to 1972 and then the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium up to the Abitur in 1981 . In the same year he began studying political science , economics and philosophy in Bonn , which he continued in Gießen and Marburg and graduated in 1989 with a diploma in political science. His thesis topic was: “Employees and trade union countervailing power. On the employee policy of IG Metall in the crisis of radical change. "

In 1984 Hans-Jürgen Urban joined the IG Metall trade union and was primarily involved in local and regional educational work. After completing his studies, he became the full-time union secretary of IG Metall in the Frankfurt am Main district management in 1991. A year later, Urban moved to the IG Metall board in the social policy department.

Since 1998 Urban has been head of the social policy department (from 2001 social policy department) on the board of IG Metall. In 2001 he completed a research stay as a visiting scientist at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). In 2003, Urban joined the Faculty of Social Science and Philosophy at the Philipps University of Marburg with the dissertation “On competitive corporatism and social politics. On the transformation of welfare state policy areas using the example of health policy ”. In the same year he became head of the functional area social policy / fundamental issues / strategic planning on the board of IG Metall. Hans-Jürgen Urban has been a managing director of IG Metall since 2007, where he is responsible for social policy , health protection and work design. In 2014 he completed his habilitation at the University of Jena. Since then he has worked there as a private lecturer at the Institute for Sociology.

Urban is a member of the administrative board of the Federal Employment Agency . He is also deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Salzgitter Stahl GmbH and a member of the supervisory boards of Salzgitter AG , the service company DGB-Index Gute Arbeit and DGB Rechtsschutz GmbH. Since 2011 he has been a member of the editorial team of the political-scientific monthly magazine Blätter for German and international politics .

Political orientation

Urban advocates union political autonomy and party political independence for the unions. He sees the trade unions in the current period of capitalism in the role of a "constructive veto player" who uses his veto power to prevent problem-worsening modernization strategies and at the same time makes his own constructive contributions to the solidarity development of work , politics and society . The unions must generate the power resources necessary for such a policy in the core areas of company and collective bargaining policy and secure and strengthen them in the framework areas of economic, social and societal policy.

Hans-Jürgen Urban is

• Member of the advisory board of the "Scientific Association for Analysis of Capitalism and Social Policy eV" (Knowledge Transfer)
• Member of the trade union forum of the magazine " Sozialismus "
• Member of the board of trustees of the " Institute Solidaric Modernism "

Quotes

“The welfare state is and will remain an indispensable institution for the humanization and democratization of our society. A capitalist society that is not humane and not democratic in and of itself. "(Introductory speech at the 21st ordinary trade union day of IG Metall, November 6, 2007)

“As the period of the privileged partnership between trade unions and social democracy draws to a close, the trade unions are faced with the task of redesigning their relationship with the most important decision-makers in the political arenas. In place of the special relationship with a party, a concept of strategic flexibility towards all parties represented in parliaments should take place. ”(Hans-Jürgen Urban, Licht am Ende des Tunnels? Problems and opportunities for a revitalization of the trade unions, in: isw-Report No. 71, Munich 2007, p. 26)

Trade union autonomy is constituted today "as a criticism of the restructuring and deconstruction of the welfare state and as a program of another modernization policy that expresses the social reproductive interests of wage earners." Issue 2 - June 2005, p. 52)

“Whoever describes my previous work in IG Metall, who my way of thinking, arguing and acting, and whoever describes what I have in mind for IG Metall as 'left' - that doesn't offend me! I don't feel insulted if I am placed in the tradition of the IG Metall-Left. The opposite is the case! "(Introductory speech at the 21st regular trade union day of IG Metall, November 6, 2007)

Publications

• Hans-Jürgen Urban / Michael Buckmiller / Frank Deppe (eds.): Antagonistic society and political democracy. VSA, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-89965-196-0 .
• Hans-Jürgen Urban (Ed.): ABC to Neoliberalismus. VSA, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89965-195-2 .
• Richard Detje / Klaus Pickshaus / Hans-Jürgen Urban (eds.): Arbeitspolicy controvers VSA, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 3-89965-148-0 .
• Joachim Beerhorst / Hans-Jürgen Urban (eds.): Field of Action European Integration VSA, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 3-89965-124-3 .
• Together with Thomas Gerlinger: Health Policy in Europe. About the Europeanization and economization of a welfare state policy fields In: Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology, special issue: 46, 2006, sociology of health. Published by Claus Wendt, Christof Wolf
• Together with Klaus Pickshaus: Illusion or concrete utopia? Good job in financial market capitalism. (on-line)
• Ways out of the defensive. Key Problems and Strategies of Union Revitalization. Source: ( PDF )
• Unions as constructive veto players. Source: ( PDF )
• Emerging from the tide. (on-line)
• Interview: We are dealing with a new kind of excess , (online) in: Magazine Co-determination 03/2008
• Constructive veto players? The unions and the new mosaic left. (on-line)
• State of emergency of democracy. Frank Deppe , Horst Schmitthenner , Hans-Jürgen Urban (eds.), Hamburg 2008
• The new generation contract: welfare state renewal in times of crisis. VSA, Hamburg 2010
• The tiger and its tamers: trade unions and the welfare state under pressure from the financial markets. VSA, Hamburg 2013
• Impulses from the depths - Marx and the trade unions today. In: Karl Marx - Counselor of the trade unions. VSA, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-96488-007-9 , pp. 89-109
• Nice job in the transformation. About intervening politics in digital capitalism. VSA, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-96488-012-3 .

Web links

Commons : Hans-Jürgen Urban  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hans-Jürgen Urban in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of Hans-Jürgen Urban

Individual evidence

1. ^ WHG Alumni , homepage of the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium, Neuwied, accessed on April 11, 2018.
2. ↑ Big heads for big questions, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 5/11
3. ↑ Board of Trustees . Institute for Modern Solidarity. Retrieved May 24, 2013.