Ver.di success in UPS election

The votes of hundreds of workers meant that ITF-affiliate ver.di won nine of 11 seats contested in the recent UPS works council election in Ditzingen, in the district of Ludwigsburg, Germany. This also represented an increase in the number of ver.di seats over the previous election.

During the election process, ver.di had raised concerns about the elections being fair and free from management interference.

Ingo Marowsky, ITF head of global supply chains, logistics and organising projects, commented: “This is a great victory that shows workers’ support for ver.di.  It is an important strategic city for ver.di and will be a strong foundation for the union in the other works council elections in UPS Germany in the coming months.

“It is also a win for ITF’s continued engagement in UPS union networking in Germany, which followed a strategic decision of our global delivery network.”

Works council elections are crucial to workers’ representation in Germany, under the system of social partnership. On 1 February 2011, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research published a study on works council elections at over 1,000 companies across Germany in 2010. It revealed that, on average, 79 percent of employees vote in such elections; women account for 29 percent of works council members; and the proportion of works council members who are also union members ranges from 49 percent to 55 percent.