Hans Mayr (trade unionist)

Hans Mayr (born December 13, 1921 in Freudenegg , Senden (Bavaria) ; † August 3, 2009 in Dreieich ) was a German trade unionist, politician and chairman of IG Metall. As a member of the SPD , he was a member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg from 1961 to 1964.

Life

His deep roots in the trade union movement and social democracy were closely linked to his personal career. Hans Mayr, born in Freudenegg near Ulm in 1921, grew up in a “classic” social-democratic working-class family. After the Nazis came to power, his parents were harassed for party membership. Hans Mayr had to go to the front as a soldier in the last years of the war.

After returning from captivity, he joined IG Metall and the SPD and soon became a full-time functionary . He worked as the first authorized representative of IG Metall in Göppingen and was elected executive board member in 1962. From 1963 on, Mayr was primarily responsible for collective bargaining policy and was considered the great tactician of his union. In 1972 he was elected second chairman, and in 1981 he succeeded Eugen Loderer as first chairman; In 1986 he resigned for reasons of age.

He achieved his greatest successes in trade union politics in the 1980s. Hans Mayr was at the head of IG Metall (1983–1986) in a phase of the onset of mass unemployment . The aim was to find answers to the economic and employment crisis in terms of wage and working time policy and to implement the 35-hour week with full wage compensation . IG Metall led over a million workers on strike . When the von Kohl government tried to amend Section 116 of the Employment Promotion Act in 1985 in order to reduce the unions' ability to strike, there was again a mass mobilization of over a million workers .

On November 20, 1961, Mayr also succeeded Karl Riegel as a member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg , to which he belonged until the end of the 1964 legislative period for the Göppingen I constituency.

Web links

• Hans Mayr on the IG Metall website