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Trade unions have long supported the Energiewende, welcoming the new employment opportunities and economic benefits of the growing renewables industry. But they also face major challenges, as the country shifts from an energy sector in which they are well established to industry dominated by start-ups where pay and conditions are often lacking.

鈥淲e see the Energiewende as a kind of engine to foster innovative technological development 鈥� it creates future jobs for our members," said S枚ren Niemann-Findeisen, a renewables energy expert at IG Metall, which has 2.3 million members and represents workers in the manufacturing sector. 鈥淎t the same time we need a transition plan that creates security for all stakeholders in the energy sector.鈥�

German trade unions play an important role in negotiating collective agreements over wages and working conditions and are represented on the boards of the major utilities. As those companies have seen their fortunes decline, trade unions have often found themselves aligned with industry and energy sector management over perceived threats to German jobs.

Fighting job cuts in the conventional power sector

Following a temporary policy reversal, the nuclear phase-out was set in motion again in 2011, with eight facilities taken offline that year, two operated by each of the "big four" utilities, which between them announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs by 2016. Trade unions have resisted these cuts but have supported the phase-out in principal, that job losses should be minimised by refocusing the utilities鈥� business model.

In 2011, Michael Vassiliadis, head of IG BCE - which represents workers in the energy sector (as well as mining, and the energy-intensive chemicals industry) and has聽661,000 members - , 鈥淚t is clear that this form of energy supply has no future in Germany,鈥� while Verdi, the services union which represents workers in nuclear power and has around 2 million members, said the phase-out should take place .

At the same time, Vassiliadis argued that fossil fuels must continue to make up a significant share of the energy mix, and the unions have held fast to this position, for exmple calling for capacity markets to ensure that fossil fuel power stations remain profitable 鈥� without them Verdi says that 60,000 jobs could be at risk.

In late 2014, with the focus of the German energy debate shifting from nuclear to the future of coal, trade unions came out in support of energy minister Sigmar Gabriel鈥檚 opposition to a quick exit from coal power generation, and even said it would be acceptable for Germany to miss its 2020 climate targets. The trade unions have traditionally had close ties to Gabriel's Social Democratic Party and Germany's coal producing regions have traditionally been strongholds for both.

The majority of Germany鈥檚 major trade unions backed a launched in November by IG BCE, calling for 鈥渁ffordable electricity and good jobs,鈥� which has attracted over 100,000 signatures to date and insists that 鈥淲ith all decisions of the Energiewende the yardstick must be that our jobs in energy production and energy-intensive industry are strengthened and secured.鈥�

Labour conditions and job security in the renewables sector

While some sectors fear job cuts, renewables have become a major source of employment. In 2013, people were employed in the wind sector, up from 63,900 in 2004. But the unions have concerns over the security of these jobs. A similar number of people were employed in the solar manufacturing sector, which has now largely collapsed. Having allowed feed-in tariffs for solar power to continue at a relatively stable level for years, the government began a more drastic series of cuts in 2012. Combined with competition from China, the fall in guaranteed income hit the sector hard and its workforce reduced by . Unions have and planning on the government鈥檚 part for these losses.

And even jobs in branches of the renewables industry that are still going strong raise issues for the unions. A recent ,* found that monthly wages in the industry were on average 900 euros lower than those in other manufacturing sectors.

鈥�, workers鈥� representation, trade union representation and collective agreements have been fairly under-developed in the wind turbine manufacturing industry but are improving since a couple of years, and also the working conditions are comparatively weak compared to other sub-sectors in metal and electrical industry,鈥� , a researcher at the Free University of Berlin looking at collective work relations in the German wind sector. 鈥淚n recent years, due mainly to the organising activities of IG Metall, things have changed in several companies - but not all.鈥�

IG Metall鈥檚 survey found that conditions were better in the wind sector than in solar, and unions have negotiated collective contracts with companies including Siemens and Areva. But they have come to blows with Germany鈥檚 biggest employer in the sector, Enercon, complaining the group offered employees little job security and to organise. Enercon has these claims.

According to researcher Krug, the conditions are in part due to operations being based in structurally underdeveloped regions 鈥� particularly in Germany鈥檚 east 鈥� where workers have limited options. But Niemann-Findeisen said that such problems were not limited to lower-skilled workers.

鈥淓ven the people who work in research and development, which is important for innovation, think that they have better chances elsewhere. So there is the risk of a brain drain. Many university graduates have a green way of thinking, or they want to go into this sector to do good, and then they realise that they don鈥檛 advance and they see former co-students go to Daimler or BASF and earn maybe twice as much,鈥� he said.