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Deutsche Welle

Social Democrat Huber was nominated on Monday to succeed Jürgen Peters, the polarizing figure who oversaw a failed strike for shorter hours and under whom IG Metall's membership dropped sharply as the union split into reformist and traditionalist camps.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Berthold Huber, right, with Jürgen Peters

Huber, 57, will take over as head of the union later this year after serving as deputy to Peters for the past four years in a power-sharing system which was designed to try and ease the rift between those wanting to modernize and those who demanded a tougher stance against employers.

Peters, who revealed that Huber was nominated unanimously as his successor by the union executive, will stand down in November. He will be remembered as the man who secured a pay increase of 4.1 percent this year and another 1.7 percent next year for manufacturing workers. Peters and IG Metall had originally gone into talks demanding a 6.5 percent raise.

New direction

The appointment of Huber, who started his career as a toolmaker but went on to study history and philosophy, signals a new direction for the union and one in which more negotiation and compromise in disputes can be expected. It will be his first task to define a new strategy to unify the remaining 2.3 million members of the union, which is still the most powerful in Germany.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  IG Metall has over two million members

Since Germany's reunification, IG Metall has had to fight growing dissatisfaction among salaried workers for labor groups in general, losing one million members in the past 12 years. The damaging split between the two camps has contributed to the losses during Jürgen Peters' reign.

To the modernizers in the union, the new leadership signals an end to positions that were often seen as extreme, and based more on ideology than on the best interests of IG Metall and its members. The union's past fierce and sometimes knee-jerk opposition to welfare reform, a retirement age increase, health care reform, temporary employment or a minimum wage caused it to lose credibility in the eyes of many.

Huber's right-hand man will be Detlef Wetzel, 54, the president of IG Metall's division in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia, which is Germany's metalworking heartland.

Wetzel earned his stripes this spring by negotiating the biggest wage increases in a decade for metal, automobile and electronic equipment workers. He is also considered a reformer.