The German trade union ver.di, which was formed in 1991 as a 3 million strong super union (public and private service industries), recently celebrated its 10th birthday. http://geschichte.verdi.de/chronik
ver.di, which has a formal partnership and reciprocal membership agreement with UNISON, has weathered a decade of economic restructuring and privatisation in Europe’s strongest economy. It has made significant membership losses and today has just over 2 million members.
ver.di’s membership decline has been mirrored across all German unions. A recent study by Heiner Dribbusch of the Institute of Economic and Social Research, highlighted the unique challenge faced by ver.di of ‘successfully adapting its organising and bargaining strategies to a large number of rather diverse service industries’: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2011/03/articles/de1103019i.htm?utm_source=EIRO&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS
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