Trade Union Responses to the Contemporary Economic Problems in Western Europe: The Context of Current Debates and Policies in the Federal Republic of Germany

Unions in most advanced capitalist societies have faced new challenges as a consequence of the lasting economic crisis since the mid-1970s. This rather unsettling situation has called for a strategic and conceptual reorientation on the part of most organized labor movements, including the West German. Although still very much in the stage of general formulation, the unions are in the process of rethinking their priorities in the area of collective bargaining, their relationship to the state and political parties, and their view of technology and economic growth; in short, we are witnessing a period of the reevaluation of previously-held positions. In specific, our paper focuses on this formative period in connection with economic policy in West Germany and analyzes the strident debates which have transpired in the daily formulation of actual strategies. Concretely, we delineate the unions' conceptions in opposition to the dominant theories in the West German political economy and highlight additional important intra-union debates. As evident in our brief description of the 'Memorandum' debates, these processes are far from being merely 'academic' and have decisive immediate implications upon the politics of West German unions and their role in German society.