Tariff conflict
Deutsche Bahn takes legal action against new train drivers’ strike
The confrontation is coming to a head: Deutsche Bahn trains are standing on the tracks near Munich Central Station
© Sven Hoppe / DPA
The fronts are becoming increasingly hardened: Deutsche Bahn wants to have the upcoming strike by the train drivers’ union GDL stopped by the courts. The GDL had previously refused to sit down at the negotiating table without a new offer.
Deutsche Bahn is taking legal action against the announced new strike by the train drivers’ union GDL. According to its own information, the group submitted an urgent application for an interim injunction against the industrial dispute to the Frankfurt am Main labor court on Monday morning. The company explained that the strike was “groundless” and that the “unpredictability of train traffic was unacceptable”.
The GDL announced strikes on Sunday evening, which would begin on Monday evening in freight transport and on Tuesday night in passenger transport. In particular, the short lead time of 22 hours for freight traffic is a “blatant imposition,” explained railway personnel director Martin Seiler. Such “wave strikes” are disproportionate and endanger supplies in the country.
Deutsche Bahn: There is a threat of the sixth strike
The railway called on the union to “immediately call off the strike and return to the negotiating table.” Formal arbitration in the collective bargaining dispute is also conceivable.
The GDL justified its new strike call on Sunday by saying that the railway had previously allowed a deadline set by the union to submit a new written offer to pass. This “inevitably leads to industrial action,” explained GDL boss Claus Weselsky. It would be the sixth strike in the current collective bargaining round.