Deutsche Bahn has invited the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) to new collective bargaining negotiations. The letter is there South German newspaper before. The Deutsche Bahn board member for human resources, Martin Seiler, addresses this directly to GDL boss Claus Weselsky. He “explicitly” offers to “conclude the negotiations based on the moderators’ overall proposal.” Weselsky had canceled this a week ago.
According to the GDL boss, the reason for this was that Deutsche Bahn had not approached the union enough. This particularly affects the crux of the negotiations, the GDL’s demand for a 35-hour week for all shift workers without any loss of wages; The train drivers at the railway currently work 38 hours a week.
However, the two moderators in the collective bargaining dispute, the former Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther (both CDU), had brought up a reduction in weekly working hours to 36 hours with full wage compensation – and with this Weselsky (also a CDU member, by the way) major concessions made. At a press conference on Monday, Weselsky initially presented it as if the moderators had only offered a reduction to 37 hours plus half an hour as an election model. A “mistake in thinking,” as he later admitted, and even later he described his presentation of the moderator’s suggestion as a “slip of the tongue.”
However, Weselsky did not want to return to the negotiating table: Even his mistake did not change his rejection of the moderator’s proposal, he said on Tuesday. The paper therefore contains other problematic aspects.
The same proposal will be discussed again
Now the railway wants to discuss this proposal again with Weselsky. In her letter to him, she also defends herself against the GDL’s claim that the railway had also rejected the moderators’ suggestion. “We make it clear once again that this is not the case,” Seiler wrote to Weselsky. The railway has therefore agreed “in your presence and in the presence of the moderators” to complete the collective bargaining negotiations on the basis of the moderators’ overall proposal. Seiler invites Weselsky to talks next Monday “in view of the possible misunderstanding here.”
The offer comes at an important time for the railway: Weselsky had announced that he would continue with so-called “wave strikes” after the end of the current strike. This is a further escalation, because these strikes are not announced 48 hours in advance, as is usually the case, but rather at relatively short notice. Weselsky also does not want to announce the duration of the strikes. This approach is intended to prevent the railway from setting up an emergency timetable, as in previous strikes, in which at least 20 percent of the trains run. For rail drivers, wave strikes are associated with even greater uncertainty. Or as Weselsky says: “This means that the railway is no longer a reliable means of transport.” The railway is now doing everything it can to avert the “wave strikes” at the last minute.
The current rail strike in long-distance, regional and S-Bahn traffic is scheduled to officially end this Friday at 1 p.m. However, passengers still have to expect train cancellations and delays throughout the day. According to the company, passenger rail traffic will only run according to plan on Saturday.