The ETUC warmly congratulates the DGB on its 75th anniversary

The DGB and its member unions are strongly committed to social justice, better working and living conditions for workers and citizens. Their fight for co-determination and a full democratisation of the economy and society is exemplary and a real source of inspiration for the European trade union movement.

The DGB has been successfully fighting for gender equality at work and in society. At the 2022 federal congress, 49,9% of delegates were women and Yasmin Fahimi was the first woman elected as DGB president.

In 1949 Hans Böckler, the first President of the German Trade Union Organisation said: "We want to be citizens, not subjects! We want to share in the judgement, action and responsibility in all the important things in the life of the community. Above all in the affairs the economy of our people."

For 75 years the DGB has found its strengths in the principle of a united trade union organisation that has shaped the German model of a social market economy, a stable and resilient democracy with co-determination, workers and trade unions rights at its heart.

Based on a strong social partnership, the DGB and its member organisations have achieved a great deal: starting with the gradual strengthening of co-determination in workplaces and companies, the 5-day week, it has succeeded in setting the payment of sick leave, the 40-hour week and the 8-hour day, paid annual leave and holiday, the protection against dismissal and measures to safeguard employment through collective bargaining, in negotiating wages increases and better working conditions, in establishing a statutory minimum wage, in creating a corporate due diligence law, in stabilising the pension level, the return to equal funding of the health insurance funds, as well as continuous improvements in social security, occupational health and safety and in education and training, to name but a few.

In challenging times of profound transformation of the world of work and of industry, the DGB together with the ETUC and its affiliates, in full solidarity, are and will remain key agents of change to shape of a sustainable future of work where quality jobs, social justice and a fair transition deliver for workers and their family, thanks to strong collective agreements, robust co-determination and new labour rights, for a resilient and competitive economy.