Konrad Carl (born 20 January 1930) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

former trade union leader. Born in

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is the Franconia#Towns and cities, s ...

, Carl completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and joined both the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

and the

Building and Construction Union The Building and Construction Union (, IG BSE) was a trade union representing building workers in West Germany. Construction workers in Germany were organised in the German Union of Building Trades until 1933, when it was banned by the Nazis. A n ...

(IG BSE). With the encouragement of the union, he studied at the Dortmund Social Academy, and then became the union's full-time managing director for the

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

district. In 1961, Carl was elected as chair of the union's Bavarian region, and in 1968 he was elected to the union's national executive taking the lead on human resources and legal matters. The following year, he became vice president of the union, working under Rudolf Sperner. In 1982, Carl was elected as president of IG BSE, winning 319 out of 354 delegate votes. As leader of the union, he was regarded as a moderate figure, but a strong negotiator. Under his leadership, the union achieved a national standardisation of construction workers' wages, and the implementation of an early retirement scheme. He also introduced the first ecological initiatives, and oversaw the integration of the East German Building, Construction and Wood Union into IG BSE. Carl was involved in founding the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers in 1974. In 1985, he was elected as president of the

International Federation of Building and Wood Workers The International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW) was a global union federation of trade unions in the building, building materials, wood, forestry and allied industries. History The federation was established in 1934 by a merg ...

, the first German to hold the role. He retired from his domestic union posts in 1991, and as international president in 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carl, Konrad 1930 births Living people German trade union leaders People from Fürth Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany