For the time being, Deutsche Bahn has failed to avert the warning strike that is planned from Sunday to Tuesday evening. According to her, there were talks with the railway and transport union (EVG) until late Thursday evening. Their chief negotiator, Kristian Loroch, spoke of “bogus offers” on Friday night. According to the current status, the warning strike will take place. However, the union had given the railways an ultimatum to approach them “and to think things over” during the course of Friday, as Loroch told the German Press Agency.
The EVG called on the employees on Thursday for the third warning strike in the current collective bargaining round. The walkout is scheduled to last from 10 p.m. Sunday evening to 12 p.m. Tuesday evening. Deutsche Bahn has decided to completely stop long-distance traffic during this time. Hardly any trains will run at DB Regio either. The so-called dispatchers, who coordinate daily rail traffic on the entire German rail network, are also called to the warning strike. Therefore, railway companies are also affected that are not involved in the wage conflict. Freight traffic is also likely to come to a standstill.
From the point of view of Deutsche Bahn (DB), there is no longer any reason for the warning strike. “In intensive talks until late Thursday evening,” the EVG was promised to meet the demand it had made months ago for the statutory minimum wage to be displayed, the group announced around midnight. Around 2,000 employees have so far only been able to earn the minimum wage through bonuses.
Overall, the EVG is negotiating for 180,000 employees at DB and another 50,000 at other railway companies. “We have met the minimum wage requirement, now the EVG has its say,” said DB HR Director Martin Seiler. The EVG must now keep its promise and cancel the 50-hour warning strike.
Goods competitors demand emergency operation
EVG negotiator Loroch said: “In the end, after lengthy discussions, the employer put a solution option on the table that was worthy of discussion for us. After we started discussing it, he then backed down.”
Several companies that compete with Deutsche Bahn in freight transport are demanding emergency operation. “The companies that are not in a collective bargaining conflict must not be harmed either intentionally or negligently,” says a letter from the network of European railways to the railway infrastructure division DB Netz. In view of a two-day warning strike on the rails, however, it is not to be expected that the German economy will be brought to its knees, according to the freight railway association. There are branches of industry that make time-critical calculations, such as the car or mineral oil industry. But even there the warning strike does not last long enough for serious effects.
The chairman of the Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL), Claus Weselsky, considers it unnecessary for the railways to stop long-distance traffic for 50 hours. “The EVG is not so well organized at the network subsidiary DB Netz that Deutsche Bahn would be forced to stop rail traffic,” Weselsky told the news portal The Pioneer. The smaller GDL competes in the railway company with the EVG for members and influence. Weselsky said: “I am sure that there will be no conclusion before we have made our demands.” The GDL is negotiating new collective agreements for the engine drivers and train crews organized by it from late summer onwards. On June 5, the GDL wants to officially announce their demands.