This is a list of trade unions in Germany, which play an important part of German labour law and European labour law.
The Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, established 1949, is the most important union organisation. After many mergers it only now consists of 8 trade unions. It mediates inter-union disputes and organises member unions so they do not impede on each other's membership. It follows the principle. In its substantive politics it is aligned mostly with the SPD. Members are not bound by DGB policies. The representation in the DGB is democratic, so in practice IG Metall and ver.di dominate the agenda and policy with the most members.
There are 8 unions, following a long series of mergers, affiliated to the largest German trade union confederation, the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB).
| Name | Est. | Members | Description | Const. | Website | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industriegewerkschaft Metall | 1949 | 2,270,000 | IG Metall | 2012 | igmetall.de | |||
| 2001 | 2,040,000 | Ver.di | 2015 | verdi.de | ||||
| IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie | 1997 | 660,000 | IG BCE | 2013 | igbce.de | |||
| 1996 | 281,000 | IG BAU had 720,000 members in 1996. | 2013 | igbau.de | ||||
| Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft | 1948 | 272,000 | GEW | 2016 | gew.de | |||
| Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft | 2010 | 197,000 | Formerly known as Transnet. | 2016 | ||||
| Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten | 1949 | 205,000 (2010) | NGG | 2014 | ngg.net | |||
| Gewerkschaft der Polizei | 1959 | 175,000 | GdP | 2014 | www.gdp.de | |||
| ÜÜÜ | Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund | 1949 | 6,105,000 | The DGB is the primary trade union federation for Germany.[1] | dgb.de |
There are 39 trade unions under the Deutsche Beamte Bund (dbb).
| Name | Est. | Members | Description | Website | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft | 1951 | 94.000 | |||||
| Komba Gewerkschaft | 1920 | 80.000 | komba.de | ||||
| Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer | 1867 | 34.000 | |||||
| ÜÜÜ | Deutscher Beamtenbund und Tarifunion[2] | 1918 | 1,275,000 | The dbb is the German Civil Service Federation. | dbb.de |
There are 14 unions affiliated to the Christlicher Gewerkschaftsbund.[3]
There are a number of other, non-affiliated unions with a total of between 200,000 and 300,000 members.[4]