First woman in post
Yasmin Fahimi is to become DGB boss
01/26/2022, 11:15 am
Yasmin Fahimi has been a member of the Bundestag for the SPD for several years. Now the politician is to replace DGB boss Hoffmann. The union recognizes Fahimi as a “distinct labor market and training expert who has many years of experience in the unions”.
The SPD politician Yasmin Fahimi is to become chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). This was announced by the DGB federal board in Berlin. With the 54-year-old SPD member of parliament and former general secretary of her party, a woman would lead the trade union federation for the first time. The previous DGB chairman Reiner Hoffmann is retiring from office for reasons of age. The election will take place in May at the DGB Federal Congress.
According to the DGB, Elke Hannack was again nominated for her position as deputy chairwoman. According to the information, Anja Piel and Stefan Körzell were also nominated for another term as members of the executive federal board.
As it was also said, a socio-ecological transformation can only succeed if the rights of the employees are strengthened and the safety of the employees is guaranteed. “The DGB trade unions see themselves as a central force in shaping the transformation. With Yasmin Fahimi, we are gaining an outspoken labor market and training expert who has many years of experience in the trade unions.”
“Well connected expert”
IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann also praised Fahimi as “an extraordinarily experienced, well-versed and well-connected expert in matters of the working world”. Germany as an industrial location is in a decisive phase of change. As a long-standing industrial trade unionist, Fahimi has the skills that are urgently needed. Hofmann called it an important step for the umbrella organization of the trade unions that a woman was at the head of the DGB for the first time in an election by Fahimi.
From 2000 to 2013, Fahimi was union secretary at the mining, chemical and energy trade union, initially in youth work and most recently as head of the policy department. She was also a permanent State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs before moving into the German Bundestag as a directly elected member in October 2017.