Kurt van Haaren (19 July 1938 – 13 July 2005) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

trade union leader. Born in Emmerich, van Haaren attended the Dortmund Social Academy, then began working for the

Deutsche Bundespost The Deutsche Bundespost (German federal post office) was a German state-run postal service and telecommunications business founded in 1947. It was initially the second largest federal employer during its time. After staff reductions in the 198 ...

, delivering mail. He joined the

German Postal Union The German Postal Union (german: Deutsche Postgewerkschaft, DPG) was a trade union representing postal workers in Germany. The union was founded at a conference held on 29 and 30 June 1949, in Stuttgart. It initially had 140,000 members, the va ...

(DPG), and then in 1964 began working full-time for the union, as its

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

district secretary. In 1968, he became a financial secretary for the union in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, and was also elected to the DPG's executive committee. From 1970, his work focused on employment law reform, and then from 1975, he was the union's lead on working conditions. In 1982, van Haaren was elected as president of the DPG, without facing an opponent. Under his leadership, the Bundespost was split up, and then privatised. He opposed the privatisation, then focused on avoiding redundancies during the process. Van Haaren was elected as the last president of the

Communications International The Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI) was a global union federation bringing together unions of communications workers worldwide. History While a meeting of unions of communication workers was held in Paris in 1911, no lasting ...

, and then served on an interim basis as the first president of its successor, the

UNI Global Union UNI Global Union, formerly Union Network International (UNI), is a global union federation for the skills and services sectors, gathering national and regional trade union. It has affiliated unions in 150 countries representing 20 million workers ...

. He supported the merger of the DPG into the new

ver.di (''Verdi'' (stylized as ''ver.di''; �vɛʁdiː; German: ''United Services Trade Union'') is a German trade union based in Berlin, Germany. It was established on 19 March 2001 as the result of a merger of five individual unions and is a memb ...

union, which took place in 2001. He then retired, and dedicated his time to the German-Polish Society in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

References

1938 births 2005 deaths German trade unionists People from Emmerich am Rhein UNI Global Union {{trade-unionist-bio-stub