The IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (IG BCE) is a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is one of eight industrial affiliations of the

German Confederation of Trade Unions The German Trade Union Confederation (german: Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund; DGB) is an umbrella organisation (sometimes known as a national trade union center) for eight German trade unions, in total representing more than 6 million people ...

(DGB).

History and structure

The IG BCE was created in 1997 from the merger of the

Chemical, Paper and Ceramic Union The Chemical, Paper and Ceramic Union (german: IG Chemie-Papier-Keramik) was a trade union representing chemical, oil refinery, paper, rubber, ceramics, glass and plastics workers in West Germany. While the Factory Workers' Union of Germany, disso ...

Leather Union The Leather Union (german: Gewerkschaft Leder, GL) was a West German trade union representing workers in shoemaking, tanning, saddlery, and other work related to leather. The union was founded in 1949 and affiliated to the German Trade Union Confed ...

, and

Union of Mining and Energy The Union of Mining and Energy (german: IG Bergbau und Energie, IGBE) was a trade union in West Germany which existed from 1946 until 1997. History In the early 20th-century, there were several miners' unions in Germany, the most important being th ...

. It covers workers in the following industries: mining (especially of coal), chemicals, natural gas, glass, rubber, ceramics, plastics, leather, petrol (and related products), paper, recycling, and water. With some 645,000 members (as of 2016) IG BCE represents about one tenth of all DGB members and is the third biggest union within that confederation. There are some 1,100 locals and 900 groups of shop stewards organized in 42 regional districts, which cooperate in eight state chapters: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse/Thuringia, North, Northeast, North Rhine, Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland and Westphalia. In 2015, IG BCE successfully negotiated a pay rise for 550,0000 employees with Germany's chemical employers association BAVC.

Political positions

IG BCE has been playing a key role in Germany's

energy transition The energy transition is the process of downshifting fossil fuels and re-developing whole systems to operate on low carbon energy sources. More generally, an energy transition is a significant structural change in an energy system regarding ...

. In 2014, the union proposed that Germany's utilities should pool their struggling hard coal plants into a joint entity, referring to the hard coal plants with total capacity of between 28 and 30 gigawatts (GW), most of which are owned by E.ON,

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...

EnBW EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, or simply EnBW, is a publicly-traded energy company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany. As its name indicates, EnBW is based in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. History Foundation and development EnB ...

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and ...

and STEAG. By 2015, the union proposed gradually phasing out old coal-fired power stations and building

combined heat and power Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...

(CHP) stations fired with gas. Its plan included taking at least 2.7 gigawatts of

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

-fired capacity gradually out of the market rather than risking sudden closures. On the initiative of IG BCE, thousands of coal miners and workers in coal-fired plants marched in Berlin in April 2015 to protest a proposed levy on the oldest, most polluting power stations, saying it could lead to losses of up to 100,000 jobs and the decline of the industry in Germany. In 2016, IG BCE, with the support of the BDI industry group, again raised concerns about plans for Germany to end its use of brown coal amid calls for it to set out a timetable for ending coal-fired power production.Markus Wacket (November 11, 2016)
Germany cuts CO2 targets for industry ahead of Morocco talks
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

Notable members

Barbara Hendricks Barbara Hendricks (born November 20, 1948) is an American operatic soprano and concert singer. Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1977, and in Switzerland in Basel since 1985. She is a citizen of Sweden following her marriage to a Swedish citiz ...

– former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety *

Ulla Schmidt Ursula "Ulla" Schmidt (born 13 June 1949) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 2001 to 2009 she was Federal Minister of Health in the German Government. Between 2013 and 2017, she served as Vice-President ...

– former Federal Minister of Health *

Martin Schulz Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018, and was a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. Previously he was President of the European Parliame ...

– former

President of the European Parliament President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Peer Steinbrück Peer Steinbrück (born 10 January 1947) is a German politician who was the Chancellor-candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the 2013 federal election. Steinbrück served as the eighth Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia f ...

– former

Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia The Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Ministerpräsident des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head of government of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (''NRW''). The po ...

References

Citations

Sources

External links

IG BCE English site
{{Authority control German Trade Union Confederation Chemical industry trade unions Energy industry trade unions Mining trade unions Trade unions established in 1997