Christof Burger for the HWK and Michael Ganter and Michael Ganter for the IHK report on their voluntary work: political advice, training of specialists and representation
No less than three entrepreneurs from Waldkirch are volunteering as Vice Presidents: The building contractor Christof Burger from Karl Burger GmbH Hoch-, Tief- und Holzbau is Vice-President of the Chamber of Crafts in Freiburg. Michael Ganter, Managing Director of Ganter Constructions & Interiors, and Michael Faller, Managing Director of Faller Packaging, are Vice-Presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) Südlicher Oberrhein.
The Freiburg Chamber of Crafts, founded in 1901, is the self-governing organization of the craft in the districts of Ortenau, Emmendingen, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Lörrach and in the urban district of Freiburg. As the “Parliament of the Crafts”, the General Assembly elects the Presidents and the Board of Directors. The members of the general assembly are in turn elected by the member companies. One of the two vice-presidents of the Chamber of Crafts must be an employer representative, the other a representative of the employees.
“The election is secret and always exciting,” explains 55-year-old Christof Burger: Most of the time, there are no other candidates, but he has also seen “fight votes”. When he ran for the first time in 2009, he traveled around the southern Baden district craft associations to listen and ask questions. “In the meetings you get headwinds. If they wouldn’t want you, they’ll say so.”
For Burger, it is important to represent the interests of small craft businesses
He sees his task in “representing the craft, namely a modern, innovative craft, and ensuring that politicians notice us”. Whining doesn’t help. Rather, it is about “showing perspectives on why the craft is important for society”. Burger is primarily involved in the HWK to support professional and academic training. In this respect, the Swiss would be a little ahead of Germany: “A bricklayer can become Federal President there.” Burger’s interest in training is also reflected in the fact that he is a board member of Wabe, a member of its training association, the training pilot steering group and the Wabe advisory board.
Another move is lobbying. The average craft business with four to six employees is too small for that. His own operations are much larger: Christof Burger, together with Wolfgang Ihle, runs the Karl Burger company in Waldkirch with 100 employees and, with Christian Pontiggia and Sebastian Koch, Peter Hoch Pflaster- und Straßenbau in Freiburg with 70 employees. Nevertheless, the graduate engineer says: “I feel like a craftsman. It is very, very important to bundle the interests of the small businesses and to place them in the channels of the district offices and municipalities.” He always succeeds. There is, of course, one downer: “It is not so easy to make a difference in politics. It is a super tanker. You need a lot of patience to make it around the curve.”
Lobbying are in both
Chambers important
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Burger sees another important task in promoting inter-company cooperation. Tradespeople are unfortunately not very open to it. As HWK vice-president, he is happy to get to know outstanding craft businesses and learn how they solve problems. “The nice thing is that you speak not only for your own trade, but for the entire trade. That enriches you and helps you to think outside the box.”
According to Michael Ganter, the IHK has two main tasks: political, “such as implementing climate targets”, and sovereign, namely “the state task of training young people”. The IHK is organized in a similar way to the HWK: every five years, the general assembly is elected to represent the interests of around 60,000 member companies. The high number of companies can be explained by the fact that even the smallest of businesses counts as owning a photovoltaic system. “Everything that is not HWK is IHK”, explains Michael Ganter: trade, gastronomy, service companies, banks, insurance offices, industrial companies. The plenary assembly with its 50 members elects the presidium with the president, his deputy and six vice-presidents.
The 57-year-old Michael Ganter was elected to the General Assembly for the first time five years ago and was also elected Vice President. He was a candidate “because I found it exciting to get an insight into other industries and to help develop ideas on how we can better position ourselves economically in South Baden and make them fit for the future.” He cites the shortage of skilled workers as an example. In contrast, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce set up the “Entrepreneurs make school” program. “We go to business classes and hold a lesson. We explain how a company is structured, how to become an entrepreneur.” After the political course had long been set in the direction of higher educational qualifications, nobody wanted to be a skilled worker anymore, says Ganter. “It has become more difficult to find good trainees who stay in their jobs.”
When looking for trainees, Ganter also thinks it makes sense to take a look at Alsace
The IHK is also looking beyond the borders to France: “On the German side there is a shortage of trainees, in Alsace there is high youth unemployment.” Unfortunately, the project is not going as planned. Many young people from Alsace did not speak German. The dual training is not known in France. In France, only those who have studied count, says Ganter. Corona is also in focus. It is about questions like: Which companies go empty-handed because of their structure when it comes to funding? What would be an alternative to the incidence value?
The IHK Südlicher Oberrhein covers a large area: Freiburg and the districts of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Emmendingen and Ortenau. There is no division of responsibilities among the six vice-presidents. Above all, it is about “shouldering the tasks given the sheer size”, which also includes representative tasks, such as company anniversaries.
The 61-year-old Michael Faller has been involved in the Chamber of Commerce for 25 years, first in the Environment and Energy Committee, of which he is chairman. Michael Faller has been a Vice President of the Presidium for two electoral terms. For him, the commitment in the Chamber of Industry and Commerce fits in with the sustainability approach that is strongly pursued in his own company. Faller Packaging has been trying to harmonize ecology, economy, and social responsibility for two decades. “You shouldn’t just take, you should also give. Volunteering is part of my position as an entrepreneur. I just think it’s important to give something back to society in the form of voluntary work.”
Faller advocates the support of sustainable production methods in the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
As a representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Michael Faller has also been a member of the Baden-Württemberg State Advisory Board for Sustainable Development for eight years. This committee meets two to three times a year in Stuttgart with the Prime Minister, the Environment Minister and the Minister for Economic Affairs and committee representatives from the church to science. He finds this work very exciting because of the different perspectives on topics such as transport and energy.
Faller sees the tasks of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in training and further education, business promotion and as the “parliament of the economy” in exchange with politics. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry gives its opinion on legislative proposals. “It is important for politics that it can ask a body: What are the effects, how do you rate it?” The IHK Südlicher Oberrhein has a completely different structure than Stuttgart. The IHK there is dominated by Porsche and Daimler. “On the other hand, we have a lot of medium-sized companies. It is important to bring their opinions to Stuttgart.”
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