The Institutional Architecture of an Alliance for Jobs

The aim of this chapter is to offer some reflections on the changing nature of industrial relations in Germany, with particular reference to the new Länder. At the heart of the exposition is the scope and content of the Bündnis für Arbeit (‘Alliance for Jobs’), a union initiative on employment which was launched in November 1995. It was welcomed enthusiastically by the public — and attracted the support of the Chancellor2 — as an innovative contribution to resolve the problem of record unemployment in Germany. While the jobless figures continue to show a deep divide between western Germany and the former communist eastern states, the Bündnis für Arbeit constituted a call on all groups — unions, employers, and government at local, state, and federal levels including the parliamentary opposition — to negotiate a tradeoff between modest wage increases and improved employment levels, and turn it into political reality. The terminology that characterized the proposals — ‘alliance’, ‘pact’, ‘conciliation’, and ‘contract’ — was significant, and these were to remain key words at various stages of the negotiations. This avoidance of confrontational language emphasized the spirit in which the proposals were advanced, as did a pragmatic approach to details. The inclination toward compromise rather than divisiveness and conflict was specific to the union initiative and, in the early stages at least, the blunt instrument of threat-based bargaining vis-à-vis the other parties who came to the negotiating-table was notable by its absence.