Overview

• President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, parliamentary leaders and the DGB honored Sommer’s unwavering advocacy for social justice.
• Sommer guided the German Trade Union Confederation from 2002 to 2014 after helping to launch the Verdi union in 2001.
• He vigorously opposed Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Hartz reforms and fought the expansion of precarious employment.
• His decade-long campaign delivered Germany’s first statutory minimum wage, implemented on January 1, 2015.
• He served as president of the International Trade Union Confederation from 2010, representing 168 million members worldwide.