Günter Friedrich Wilhelm Döding (4 September 1930 – 8 August 2005) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

trade union leader. Born in Isenstedt, Döding worked as a coal miner before becoming a cigar sorter. He joined the

Food, Beverages and Catering Union The Food, Beverages and Catering Union (, NGG) is a trade union in Germany. It has a membership of 205,900 and is one of eight industrial affiliates of the German Confederation of Trade Unions. Membership Today, NGG mainly represents employees a ...

(NGG), and soon began working for it full-time in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

. In 1956, he joined the union's national executive as youth secretary, and was given charge of the NGG's tobacco sector. In 1966, Döding became vice president of the NGG, then in 1978 was elected as its president. As leader of the union, he championed

early retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

policies for workers, an environmental tax and new laws on working hours. His policy views attracted attention, and in 1985 he set them out fully in a book, ''Die neuen Aufgaben der Gewerkschaften''. Döding was elected as president of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations in 1981. In 1988, he was implicated in an accounting scandal at co op AG, leading him to retire from his union positions.

References

1930 births 2005 deaths German trade union leaders People from Minden-Lübbecke {{Trade-unionist-bio-stub