ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the constituent Association of Workers and the party's symbiotic ties to the major union organization-the German Trade Union Federation (DGB). It shows that as the role of the government increases in economic affairs, the DGB and the business community become key actors in the emergent neocorporatist network, in which the some institutions make joint decisions on incomes and social policies. The informal linkage between Social Democratic Party (SPD) and DGB at their organizational level as well as at the executive and legislative levels can be productive or discord-laden for both sides. Radical workers were pleased; they had denounced Concerted Action as a plan to perpetuate the gross inequities of the capitalist system and to maintain the DGB in a system-sustaining position. The Metal Workers Union, backed by DGB and SPD, contended that any company reorganization must not affect codetermination.
