The move by IGM to make this a arguing point is seen by many as a campaign to get more young people into the union. Since I actually know some people working for them in Frankfurt, I assume I will find out at some point if this was case, and of it worked. In matters of social policy, however, this is great timing. Parenting was always high on the list of important talking point of the unions, at least in the PR side, or Verhandlungsmasse side. Remember the Samstags gehört Vati mir posters? Since 1956, the IGM and DGB pushed for regulation of working hours? The 5-day, 35h-week for workers developed true momentum in the 1970s, but the first posters with this text are from 1956!
Only relatively recently, Elternzeit and Elterngeld are more widely accepted in German society as an option to share the work (and, importantly, the experience) of parenting. The 28h week comes around the corner at exactly this moment. However, the argument to sweeten it up for them Arbeitgeber is productivity… Well, what’s the talking point again? 
