Solidarität im Arbeitsalltag

The article focuses on the company as a place where solidarity is born. In order to cope with the demands of the work process, employees enter into collegial ties and commitments, at the same time following their need to develop their own identity and experience recognition at work. The authors argue that collegiality is an implicit service provided by the workers, on which the company depends, but which can only be practised interactively by the workers themselves. Collegiality develops into processes of solidarity if employees use their power potentials to formulate their own goals and influence the conditions of their cooperation. Trade unions bring together the collegial and solidarity-based modes of action emanating from the workplace ; they use the power potential of the employees arising in the companies and bundle it into organisational power. Every trade union demand is ultimately based on the members’ common objectives and their willingness to stand up for them.