The executive board of IG Metall is to be reduced to five members under Christiane Benner.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The IG Metall union is to be led by a woman for the first time. The board of the largest single trade union in Germany nominated the previous deputy of the outgoing chairman Jörg Hofmann, Christiane Benner, as a candidate for his successor, as the IG Metall announced on Tuesday.
Hofmann suggested Benner himself. The previous chief cashier, Jürgen Kerner, who sits on the supervisory boards of Siemens and Thyssenkrupp, among others, is to become the new second chairman. He is considered to be well connected. His successor as chief cashier is also to be a woman: Nadine Boguslawski, currently chief representative of the union in Stuttgart.
A dual leadership with Benner and the Baden-Württemberg IG Metall boss Roman Zitzelsberger had recently broken up. For health reasons, Zitzelsberger announced that he would not be a member of the board.
The model, for which the articles of association would have to be changed, had already met with skepticism on the board. It is customary in the union for the number two to move up when the first chairman resigns.
The leadership of IG Metall will be re-elected at the union conference from October 22nd to 26th in Frankfurt. Four of the previous seven board members are no longer there. The executive board is to be reduced to five members.
Ralf Reinstädtler, currently the first authorized representative in the Saar Palatinate, is also to join the committee. “This personnel proposal promises continuity despite major personnel changes,” said the outgoing union boss Hofmann. “In this way, IG Metall will remain the assertive, combative and forward-looking union it is today in the years to come.”
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