"IG Metall (German: Industriegewerkschaft Metall, "Industrial Union of Metalworkers´") is the dominant metalworkers´ union in Germany, making it the country´s largest union as well as Europe´s largest industrial union. Analysts of German labor relations consider it a major trend-setter in national bargaining.
The name refers to the union´s metalworkers roots dating back to the start of unions in imperial Germany in the 1890s, though this formal organization was founded post-war in 1949. Over the years the union has taken on representation in industries beyond mining of minerals to include manufacturing and industrial production, machinists, printing industry, which includes modern automobile manufacturing and steel production as part of its blue-collar root, but also includes more white-collar sectors such as electrical and other forms of engineering, information systems, and with the combining of formerly separate unions for workers in wood, plastics, textiles and clothing, includes non-metal blue-collar workers. Deals agreed by IG Metall in the pilot region of Baden-Württemberg, an industrial and car-making hub and home to Daimler and Bosch, traditionally serve as a template for agreements across the country. IG Metall and ver.di together account for around 15 percent of the German workforce, and other sectors tend to broadly follow their agreements." - (en.wikipedia.org 15.11.2019)
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