Heinz Kluncker

Heinz Kluncker ( born February 20, 1925 in Barmen (now Wuppertal to ), † 21 April 2005 in Stuttgart ) was a German trade unionist. Trained as an industrial clerk was 1964-1982 Chairman of the OTV (today Verdi ) and is known for a tough collective bargaining and strong representation of workers' demands. In 1974 he made ​​in wage negotiations with the government of Willy Brandt headlines when the garbage workers went on strike three days.

Life

The son of a social democratic locksmith grew up as an only child in Wuppertal. Where he graduated in 1939 from the elementary school and trained as an industrial manager in the textile wholesale. He joined the Hitler Youth, which he later regretted. In 1942, he took off a shop assistant exam and worked as a shipping clerk. In 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. In June 1944, he deserted in Normandy and went to U.S. prisoner of war, in an Atlanticist became of him.

1946 Kluncker was discharged from the U.S. to Germany, worked as a police officer and joined the OTV and the SPD. In the same year he became a full-time secretary in the OTV. From 1949 to 1951 he studied economics and business administration, sociology and law in the 2nd course of the Academy of Social Economy in Hamburg. While studying Heinz Oskar Vetter was his fellow student. Among his academic teachers were the sociologist Helmut Schelsky and the later Federal Minister Karl Schiller. From 1952 Kluncker officer of the OTV was in Stuttgart.

From 1964 he was chairman of the OTV, which then had 1.4 million members. On taking office was the 39 -year-old recent trade union leader of Germany. He was able to achieve far-reaching and groundbreaking labor agreements in hard collective struggles. This included the introduction of the 40 -hour week and the 13th monthly salary in the public service.

In 1974, Kluncker the most violent strike in the public sector: a three-day strike by refuse workers and street workers reached the OTV against the will of Chancellor Willy Brandt a tariff increase of 11%. Both denied but that this had contributed to Brandt's resignation. In the fall / winter before the first oil crisis led to a quadrupling of oil prices ( 20 - 30 % higher prices for gasoline and diesel, higher prices for fuel oil ); unions argued that the foreseeable loss of purchasing power of the DM must already get compensated by these strong wage increase. The wage freeze was also known as Kluncker Round. Many economists threw Kluncker or the unions to have set this to a high degree wage-price spiral that, among other things, the then Federal Bank vice president Otmar Emminger .. The following years were marked by stagflation and Euro sclerosis. 1979 there was a second oil crisis.

Kluncker took in 1964 as first in DGB on contacts with communist trade unions in Eastern Europe. His journey in 1965 in the Czechoslovak Carlsbad was considered a political sensation. Later he conferred with the fdgb the GDR and was the first German trade union leader, who received official relations with the communist trade unions. While this suited the détente of the SPD, thrusting his participation in two conferences of the Polish Solidarity opposition ( when?) Their disapproval. From 1978 to 1982 Kluncker was also Vice President of the International Transport Workers' union. Until 1985 he remained head of the Public Services International (PSI). In 1992 he helped to establish independent trade union organizations in Croatia.

On 2 June 1982 he joined surprising on medical advice, but for politics, from his office. He weighed 135 kg at that time and had severe cardiovascular complaints. His successor in the function of the union president was Monika Wulf- Mathies. In the 1980s he became involved at the request of Willy Brandt ( SPD party chairman from 1964 to 1987 ) in the SPD Program Committee. And from 1990 to 1995 was Kluncker the Chairman of the Senior Citizens' Council.

In his last years Kluncker lived in retirement in Stuttgart. He died in April 2005 after a long illness, a few weeks after his 80th birthday.

In an obituary said, always called "the Fat " From good friends and critics alike because of its scope, he was considered the most powerful union leaders in Germany, which his booming voice matched only too well. For many business leaders he was often " the bogeyman of the nation". Recognizing it was noted that his negotiations it was independent of whether his counterparty of the SPD were or (such as Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher ) of the FDP. The Verdi chairman Frank Bsirske praised Kluncker in a press release in late April as " important person " and " paved the way for reconciliation with the East."

Honors

In May 2009, the lower part of Oberbergi street in Heinz- Kluncker Street was renamed in Wuppertal.

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