The collective bargaining agreement between the railways and the train drivers’ union GDL is about to escalate. Because of the GDL strike, which was announced at short notice and unexpectedly, the railway canceled the talks that were actually planned for Thursday. “We will not be negotiating with the train drivers’ union this week,” said DB human resources director Martin Seiler. “Either you strike or you negotiate, you can’t do both at the same time.”
The GDL warning strike is scheduled to last from Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. to Thursday at 6 p.m. The railway has now drawn up an emergency plan. The digital timetables should be up to date. Long trains in particular would be used in order to be able to offer as many seats as possible. Nevertheless, the strike will have a “massive impact,” according to the railway, and there will be many cancellations and delays. The group recommends that customers postpone non-essential trips; there are extensive goodwill regulations for this. “Experience has shown that there will also be massive restrictions in regional transport,” said the railway. “We also expect that there will no longer be any trains running in some regions.”
The railway had made a lot of concessions to the GDL at the beginning of the collective bargaining round in order to avoid strikes. She brought a generous salary offer of eleven percent to the first interview last week. The GDL did not agree with this and criticized the fact that the employers’ side has so far categorically rejected a demand that is particularly important for the union: The GDL wants to enforce a shorter working time of 35 instead of 38 hours for shift workers with full wage compensation. That’s too expensive, the railway argues, and there aren’t enough staff for it.
In view of the wage offer, the GDL initially stated that it wanted to continue discussions with the railway. Both sides agreed to weekly negotiations, with the next one scheduled to take place on Thursday. However, the railway sees the strike call, which was sent out at extremely short notice – it was published on Tuesday afternoon, just one day before the start of the industrial action – as an enormous provocation. Trustful conversations are not possible like this.
“Anyone who breaks agreements and makes millions of travelers liable with a short-term strike cannot expect that we will simply continue to sit at the negotiating table,” said Human Resources Director Seiler. The strike was “deliberately” scheduled for a negotiation date that had already been agreed upon. This “is a unique escalation in our social partnership that we do not accept.”
GDL wants to appear at the hearing location
The GDL, on the other hand, wants to appear at the hearing location this Thursday despite the train cancellation. “Instead of publicly defaming the GDL, Mr. Seiler and his followers should not commit any further refusal to work,” said GDL boss Claus Weselsky on Wednesday evening.
It is now unclear how the collective bargaining round will continue. In addition to the canceled conversation on Thursday, Bahn and GDL have arranged three further appointments, the next one on November 23rd and 24th. It is uncertain whether these will take place; The railway demands that the GDL return to a constructive course. In other industries, however, it is common for warning strikes to take place in the immediate vicinity of negotiations. This was the case in the spring, for example, when the Verdi union called for a large-scale industrial action immediately before a round of talks in the public sector. The employers still did not cancel the negotiation date – unlike the railway.
The dispute between the GDL and the railway could have repercussions under labor law. It is possible that the railway will go to the labor courts to have the proportionality of the strikes checked or to question individual goals of the GDL. It would also be conceivable that she would take action there against the “Fair Train” cooperative, which the GDL founded in order to employ train drivers on better terms than at the railway and then rent them out to the railway and other train companies. The railway has already achieved partial legal success this year in a dispute with a union: EVG called off a strike in the spring after the railway went to the Frankfurt labor court. There both sides agreed to continue negotiations without industrial action.