INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFERENCE AND CHANGING WORKPLACE RELATIONS IN POST-UNIFICATION EAST-GERMANY - A CASE-STUDY OF SECONDARY-EDUCATION TEACHERS

German Unification in 1990 was processed by the imposition of the 'wes tern' institutional framework on the former east. Legal, administrativ e and fiscal systems were transferred as part of the Unification Treat y together with the West German industrial relations machinery of co-d etermination in collective bargaining and participation at the level o f the workplace. However the fact that the two Germanies had grown in different economic, social and ideological environments over the previ ous 40 years raises questions about the viability of such institutiona l transference. Feelings of 'colonisation' and frustrated expectations have been identified as western dominance of officialdom and disappoi ntment at the product of Unification has emerged in the east. Within t he public sector these problems have been accompanied with ideological purges of public servants in social policy and education after invest igation of past involvement with the former GDR secret police network. This article examines institutional transference with reference to th e case of secondary education teachers. Disputes over wage equalisatio n, job cuts and non-recognition of former GDR reaching qualifications are examined together with attitudes of classroom teachers to the chan ging nature of their work, their status as teachers and their involvem ent as trade union participants in the German participatory system of industrial relations.