Michael Sommer (trade unionist)

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Michael Volker Sommer (born January 17, 1952 in Büderich ) is a German trade union official. From 2002 to 2014 he was federal chairman of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB).

Michael Sommer (2010)

Life

Sommer was born in Büderich . His mother, who died in 1986, was chief secretary and his father was an authorized signatory in the Rheinmetall Group. As a child he lived in an orphanage and later moved to West Berlin with his mother .

Michael Sommer studied political science at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University of Berlin from 1971 to 1980 - from 1977 to 1979 as a scholarship holder of the Hans Böckler Foundation - and was also a member of the SEW university group for several years in the 1970s . He has been a member of the SPD since 1981 .

Today, after the end of his DGB career, Sommer is Deputy Chairman of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation .

Sommer is married to the journalist Ulrike Sommer , also an SPD. In 2013 he donated one of his kidneys to his wife, who suffered from kidney failure .

Union functions

DPG and ver.di

Since 1971 he has been a member of the Deutsche Postgewerkschaft (DPG) , which was merged into the ver.di union in 2001 . Initially from 1971 to 1980 he held various honorary trade union functions. After completing his studies and his diploma thesis on privatization perspectives in the German postal system (1979), he worked full-time for the postal union: in 1980 as a lecturer at the DPG training center in Gladenbach . In 1981 Michael Sommer became secretary of the DPG district board in Bremen, in 1982 head of the press and public relations department at the main board of the DPG and - after a three-month study visit to the USA in 1987 - from 1988 to 1993 head of the central affairs department and head of the board and policy department at the main board of the DPG. Since 1993, Sommer has been a member of the Executive Board of the DPG and since 1997 Deputy Chairman of the DPG.

Since 2001, he was Deputy National Chairman of the ver.di United Services Union .

DGB chairmanship

On May 28, 2002 he was elected Chairman of the German Federation of Trade Unions, on December 10, 2004, the first Deputy President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and chairman of the ICFTU Steering Committee, on November 3, 2006, Deputy President of the newly founded International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) . On June 25, 2010, he was elected President of the International Trade Union Confederation at the 2nd ITUC World Congress. His tenure as DGB boss ended in May 2014 when Reiner Hoffmann was elected as his successor.

Positions

In his role as DGB chairman, Sommer repeatedly demanded tax increases. Most recently, he spoke out in favor of raising the top tax rate to 49 percent, a tax on the rich of an additional three percent, the reintroduction of the wealth tax and a higher inheritance tax . As early as 2011, he advocated a generally binding minimum wage of 8.50 euros per hour.

criticism

On February 5, 2013, Sommer met with Federal Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière . De Maizière accepted an invitation from the DGB and has been the first Federal Defense Minister for 30 years to be invited to the DGB building for talks. Following the conversation, de Maiziere said: “The Bundeswehr is part of the peace movement ”, just like the unions are. Sommer was happy about "[...] a very great conversation with a very open minister." For his publicly executed "solidarity with the Bundeswehr", Sommer was severely criticized from within his own ranks and by various union-related peace activists. He was accused of undermining the objectively and historically necessary critical relationship between the unions and the armed forces, and instead promoting a common policy, through the meeting forced by the DGB, as well as through the undisputed acceptance of de Maizière's statement that the Bundeswehr was part of the peace movement What, for example, the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland commented with the headline “DGB now part of the troop”. From the ranks of the peace movement, which traditionally works closely with the trade unions, several open letters were written to Michael Sommer and published partly online and partly in daily newspapers such as the Junge Welt .

Federal assemblies on the SPD proposal

Michael Sommer was on May 23, 2004 a member of the 12th , May 23, 2009 a member of the 13th , June 30th 2010 a member of the 14th and March 18, 2012 a member of the 15th Federal Assembly . He was always elected at the suggestion of the SPD.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b CV of Michael Sommer on www.dgb.de
  2. ↑ DGB boss Sommer is not yet thinking of saying goodbye. handelsblatt.com, December 27, 2012, accessed April 1, 2014
  3. ↑ Hoffmann elected DGB boss with 93.1 percent , Rheinische Post online from May 12, 2014, accessed on May 12, 2014
  4. ↑ DGB boss calls for higher taxes for the rich. Retrieved December 29, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Trade unions and armed forces: closer exchange planned. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  6. ↑ DGB now part of the troop. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  7. ↑ We contradict! No to the DGB alliance with German war policy. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  8. ↑ DGB now part of the troop. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  9. ^ Open letter to Michael Sommer on the meeting with Defense Minister de Maizière. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  10. ↑ We contradict! No to the DGB alliance with German war policy. Retrieved April 28, 2013 .
  11. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)

Web links

Commons : Michael Sommer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Summer, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sommer, Michael Volker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION leading DGB functionary
DATE OF BIRTH 17th January 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Buderich