After the GDL’s strike vote among its members in the run-up to Christmas, strikes might last significantly longer than recently. Around 97 percent of participants spoke out in favor of indefinite strikes.
At least on Monday and Tuesday, train traffic in Germany should run as usual. According to dbb boss Ulrich Silberbach, an important conference of the German Civil Service Association (dbb), of which the GDL is a member, should not be jeopardized by industrial disputes at the railway. “I agreed with Claus Weselsky before Christmas that there would be no strikes during the conference in Cologne,” Silberbach told the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger” a few days ago. “The arrival and departure is guaranteed. What happens followingwards is no longer in my hands.”
Strike from Wednesday?
Strikes on the rails can be expected at any time from Wednesday at the latest. Especially since it is currently not foreseeable that the two sides will come closer in the collective bargaining dispute. Deutsche Bahn had expanded its previous offer once more on Friday. For the first time, she took up a reduction in working hours called for by the GDL. However, Group Human Resources Director Martin Seiler still does not want to know anything regarding the full wage compensation that is also being demanded.
The GDL’s core demand is a reduction in working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours per week without loss of wages. The GDL has already reached such an agreement with two smaller railway companies, Netinera and Go Ahead. According to union leader Claus Weselsky, she wants to implement these results as a model throughout the entire industry. “We are committed to achieving comparable deals in the market,” he said a few weeks ago. “We won’t let up.”
Last Friday, the railway proposed expanding existing choice models for working hours. Up to now, employees can decide whether they want more money, more vacation or fewer working days per week. You might reduce your weekly hours from 39 to 37, but you would receive 5.7 percent less pay. The railway now offers the possibility of reducing weekly working hours in this mode by up to 35 hours. If you want, you might also work up to 40 hours a week for a little more money.
Seiler emphasized that anyone who decides on shorter working hours will have to make compromises on a collectively agreed wage increase. The group continues to reject the full wage compensation demanded by the GDL.
Lawsuit once morest the Fairtrain cooperative
The conflict is also exacerbated by a lawsuit brought by Deutsche Bahn before the Hesse State Labor Court. The company submitted it last Tuesday. Deutsche Bahn is taking action once morest the Fairtrain cooperative, which the GDL founded in the summer. According to Weselsky, the aim of the rental company is to poach train drivers from the railway and to loan them out to railway companies under their own tariff conditions. The railway sees this as a conflict of interest and questions the collective bargaining ability of the GDL, which from the company’s perspective now acts as both an employer and a union.
The legal dispute only marginally concerns specific questions from the collective bargaining dispute. The railway cannot prevent strikes anyway. But it might have an impact on a future collective agreement that the railway continues to strive for with the GDL.
