Sabrina Lamers, from IG Metall Berlins newly formed digital team, welcomed the crowd. In her opening words she discussed that one can observe a volatile situation in the global tech industry regarding its economic development, but also in terms of unionization efforts of the employees. She emphasized that the industry is at a very pivotal point which will decide about whether there will be more collective bargaining agreements in the future or not. 

Since Germany has strong labor laws in favor of workers, the possibility to organize in a trade union and to bargain for collective agreements is established and protected by the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) in Germany. Nevertheless, many private-sector companies have been dodging collective bargaining ("Tarifflucht" = evasion of collective bargaining), which is reflected in a decreasing collective bargaining coverage over recent years.

In his speech, Jan Otto, President of IG Metall Berlin, spoke about his own experience as a works council member and encouraged the tech workers not to be intimidated by the expected backlash when organizing at the workplace. He presented the project for organizing and developing Berlins digital economy and discussed the economic circumstances: Every fourth job in Berlin is now created in the digital industry.

"We want to organize this sector, these companies, and I am convinced that we can make this happen," said Jan Otto. "Even the highest levels of education and qualifications are no guarantee for good working conditions. There is no automatism, in an economic system, where capitalism rules. The only ones that can do something about it, are the unions, the IG Metall." Jan Otto emphasized once again: "IG Metall is not me or our 'digital team' – it's you!"

Numerous active works councils and confidents (shop stewards) from companies in the digital economy took part in the networking event, including colleagues from CARIAD, MBition, Rolls Royce Solutions, Here and Share Now.

A handful of colleagues shared brief inputs on the current situation in their companies: Juliane, woco chair at Here, for example demystified the work of their labor realtions team. Others discussed challenges in organizing an international workforce.

Recent successes were shared and warmly applauded. And there successes indeed: The collective agreement on job security at CARIAD or the landslide win for IG Metall at Mbitions recent woco election.

In a subsequent workshop phase, the tech workers discussed in groups. Yonatan, woco chair at Share Now, disussed the potential of works council surveys for building organizational strength.
Another workshop, conducted by Finn Seidenthal from IG Metall Berlin, aimed at demystifying some misconceptions surrounding work relations within the digital economy. During the animated discussion, a clear picture emerged, thanks to the practical experience shared by our colleagues in the industry. The myth that software developers are akin to academics, freely exploring like researchers, was debunked. Instead, colleagues highlighted a trend towards the industrialization of intellectual work, following standardized procedures. Code, it was argued, is produced like any other commodity.

After the workshops was some more time for chatting over a cold bevarage. It was a thoroughly successful kick-off for the digital team.