Karl Buschmann

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Karl Buschmann (born August 12, 1914 in Bielefeld ; † February 16, 1988 there ) was a German trade unionist . From 1963 to 1978 he was chairman of the Textile Clothing Union (GTB).

Life

After completing an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, he was unemployed for some time during the Great Depression and in 1934 found work in a Bielefeld textile company. Immediately after the end of the war, he got involved in building the textile-clothing-leather trade union in Bielefeld and in the British zone of occupation. In 1947 he became the full-time district secretary of his union and headed the Minden-Lippe district (Ostwestfalen-Lippe) until he was elected to the executive board at the 2nd Ordinary Trade Union Day of the Textile Clothing Union (GTB) in 1951. Here he took over responsibility for tariff policy . In 1961 Buschmann became deputy chairman of the GTB, and in 1963 the trade union day elected him chairman.

In 1978, Karl Buschmann retired from office for reasons of age. He died on February 16, 1988 at the age of 73 in his hometown of Bielefeld.

Services

Under his leadership as the board member responsible for collective bargaining policy, the issue of aligning lower wages in the textile and clothing industry with the level of the industry as a whole, as well as reducing the regular weekly working hours from 48 to 40 hours, were on the agenda. There were large strikes in the textile industry in 1953 in the Westphalian tariff district, and in Lower Saxony / Bremen and Hesse in 1958. In 1954, Buschmann was the first to enforce binding recovery times for piecework workers in the clothing industry . In 1956, an effective wage clause was agreed for the first time, which excluded the offsetting of wage increases from company allowances. The Federal Labor Court declared this tariff provision ineffective twelve years later.

As the trade union chairman, the employers suggested a social partnership approach in the following period, which in return should recognize the role of the trade union more strongly. a. They agreed to collective bargaining regulations for the protection and exemption of shop stewards, as well as the collection of union dues by the payroll offices and benefit regulations for union members.

His time as chairman was particularly marked by the beginning internationalization of clothing production. As one of the first industries, the clothing industry began to shift jobs on a large scale to countries with low wage and labor standards as early as the 1960s.

To protect domestic jobs, Karl Buschmann fought for a world textile agreement at the beginning of the 1970s , which came into force in 1973 and limited the rate of increase in textile and clothing imports and thus delayed the relocation process. The number of employees in the German clothing industry decreased from 406,000 (only West Germany) in 1966 to 93,000 in 1996 (Germany as a whole). This development was followed by the dissolution of the Textile Clothing Union in 1998.

Karl Buschmann had already pointed out in the 1970s that production in countries without union representations and without civil society institutions would lead to unbridled exploitation. He was ahead of his time and called for social clauses in international trade agreements with which the development of the newly industrialized countries should also be supported with regard to the living and working conditions there.

Awards

Web links

literature

  • Minutes of the trade union days of the textile and clothing union from the years 1949, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1978, 1988, all published in Düsseldorf

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minutes of the 8th Ordinary Trade Union Day of the Textile Clothing Union, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 311
  2. ↑ Entry "Buschmann, Karl" in Munzinger Online / Personen - Internationales Biographisches Archiv, URL: http://www.munzinger.de/document/00000014288
  3. ↑ Redaktionsbüro Harenberg: Knaurs Prominentenlexikon 1980. The personal data of celebrities from politics, economy, culture and society . With over 400 photos. Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1979, ISBN 3-426-07604-7 , Buschmann, Karl, p. 66 .
personal data
SURNAME Bushman, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1988
Place of death Bielefeld