UAW Aims for Southern Momentum as German Unions Struggle With Shrinking Base and State Dependence
Published on 07/20/2026 at 00:10 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The United Auto Workers is preparing to extend its recent organizing victory at Volkswagen in Chattanooga to other foreign-owned car plants in the US South. In an interview in mid-July, UAW President Shawn Fain said he expects the Mercedes-Benz facility in Tuscaloosa to unionize next. “It is merely a matter of time,” he stated. The union plans to grow its strike fund to more than one billion dollars. Fain dismissed allegations from a US Justice Department investigation into his conduct.
While the UAW goes on the offensive, Germany’s traditional labor unions face a different kind of pressure. The Institute of the German Economy (IW) has warned that declining membership and falling collective-bargaining coverage could create a power vacuum in the world of work. Demographic change, structural shifts, and artificial intelligence are all eroding the influence of collective actors, according to IW researchers. The institute plans a conference on July 21, 2026, dedicated to stabilizing the social partnership, focusing on how employer associations and unions can respond to technological upheaval.
Unions in Germany are responding with a mix of strategies: membership drives, demands for new legislation, and international expansion. Yet the IW authors caution that an excessively strong state role could undermine the social partners’ own efforts.
Political calls for state intervention have grown louder. DGB chairwoman Yasmin Fahimi argued in mid-July for a statutory “heat short-time allowance.” She cited a survey of 4,000 employees in which one in three said extreme temperatures strain them. Fahimi pointed to economic damage, estimating that each hot day costs the economy roughly 431 million euros. IG BAU, the construction and agricultural union, urged employers to take protective steps such as shifting working hours to cooler parts of the day.
In May, Chancellor Merz emphasized the importance of co-determination at the DGB’s federal congress. He pledged to promote digital formats such as online works council elections and virtual assemblies. The federal government also pointed to the Bundestariftreuegesetz (Federal Collective Bargaining Compliance Act), which is already in force.
Regional conflicts remain heated. In Baden-Württemberg, IG Metall is mobilizing against Mercedes-Benz plans to increase the weekly workweek from 35 to 40 hours without wage compensation. The union notes massive job cuts in the industry since 2019. On July 18, around 300 people demonstrated in Lüdenscheid against feared cuts to social welfare. DGB North Rhine-Westphalia and IG Metall representatives warned of reductions in social insurance systems and labor law protections.
Meanwhile, organizations such as the ÖGB (Austrian Trade Union Federation) are using the Disability Pride Month to demand a higher compensatory levy for companies that do not employ people with disabilities.
The story of collective representation abroad offers a counterpoint. At MYLUX Technology in Vietnam’s Hung Yen province, a plant-level union founded in December 2025 had boosted membership from 307 to nearly 370 by summer 2026. Regular dialogue and collective agreements secured an average monthly income of between 9 and 10 million Vietnamese ??ng. The message: union structures remain a central tool for worker representation worldwide.
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