German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) Agenda-setting campaign on the minimum wage
Since December 2007, the German Trade Union Confederation, together with wegewerk, has continued the campaign for the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany, which was launched in 2006 in cooperation with the NGG and ver.di trade unions and which, after eight years of intensive public relations work, successfully resulted in the demanded legislation in July 2014.
Giant poster as a prelude.
In December 2007, the German Trade Union Confederation took over the campaign for the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany, which was launched in March 2006 by the Food, Beverages and Catering Union (NGG) and the United Services Union (ver.di) and which wegewerk accompanied from the beginning.
A giant poster in the centre of Berlin's administrative district, on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Unter den Linden, was used as a press event for the launch. The photos taken on this occasion were often used as illustrations for reporting on the topic, which multiplied the motif far beyond the advertising service booked.
Advertising measures in the government district.
In the further course of the campaign, permanent advertising measures were used again and again, as long as they reached the government quarter selectively. A bus of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe served as an advertising medium on one of the lines running through the government quarter.
In order to inform the general public, priority was given to providing the DGB structures with campaign material. In the run-up to the Bundestag elections in 2008 and 2009, wegewerk also coordinated a promotional tour throughout Germany, which included an exhibition container in city centres to draw attention to the problem of low wages.
Large spaces and mobile advertising media were also used, limited in time and location, to place the demand for a minimum wage at events such as party congresses and conferences, usually in conjunction with actions by activists on the ground and always with messages embedded in the context of the event.
Accompanying online measures.
At the heart of the campaign was the website, its supporters and the regular newsletters that kept the campaign going for eight years. In 2010, wegewerk again completely renewed the website on the basis of the CMS ww.edit™ and also maintained it editorially until 2012, from which time the DGB's own resources were able to successively take over editorial responsibility.
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Campaign measures at party conferences.
A special role was the accompaniment of CDU party congresses, all the more so after the CDU formed a coalition with the FDP in 2009. Both parties rejected a statutory minimum wage, but in the CDU there was a minority willing to compromise. First, an existing brochure refuting counter-arguments to the minimum wage was visually adapted to the CDU's corporate design, reissued and distributed by a promotion team equipped in the CDU shop in front of the party conference site. In addition, wegewerk reserved the address of the party conference website again without hyphens and distributed the contents of our campaign website in the CDU web design via this. At later party conferences, the party was repeatedly reminded that its supporters were in favour of a statutory minimum wage by a clear majority, e.g. with posters along the S-Bahn lines leading to the conference venue.
In 2010, the DGB national congress raised the demand for a minimum wage by one euro to 8.50 euros. wegewerk revised the campaign CD in this context and staged the photo for the resolution with a truckload of helium balloons from which human-shaped flyers hung.
Minimum wage bus #100 in front of the CDU party headquarters
Taxi advertising was also used
From around 2011 onwards, even a majority of FDP supporters favoured not only a differentiated, but even a uniform, statutory minimum wage; FDP party conventions have also been accompanied since then. Unlike the CDU, the FDP could not bring itself to offer a compromise on the issue of the minimum wage either.
After the FDP dropped out of the 2013 federal elections, the new coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD included the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in its programme at the end of 2013. Against this background, the campaign was "ramped up" again in 2014 to counteract a half-hearted implementation with various exceptions. Once again, a motif line was developed, a large area in the government district and advertising media on taxis were used.
Germany has a minimum wage.
With the approval of the "Act to Strengthen Collective Bargaining Autonomy" by the Bundestag on 3 July 2014 and the Bundesrat on 11 July 2014, the campaign goal was achieved after eight and a half years.