The German trade union centre DGB has published an ambitious €260 billion Marshall Plan for Europe, aimed at generating economic growth and new jobs between 2013 to 2022. The DGB argues that Europe’s welfare state should be expanded rather than cut back and that high quality public and private-sector services are essential - both for designing a modern welfare state and for dynamic and innovative industry:
http://www.fesdc.org/pdf/A-Marshall-Plan-for-Europe_EN.pdf
The DGB has lost 48% of its membership since 1991. At the end of 2010 only 19% of German workers were members of a trade union despite a social partnership model existing in many sectors of the economy. Last May the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung published a comprehensive study of the trade union movement and industrial relations in Germany:
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id-moe/09113-20120828.pdf
