breaking news
The train drivers’ union GDL has cleared the way for indefinite strikes next year. Around 97 percent of the members voted in favor of longer industrial disputes at Deutsche Bahn. The Christmas season is not affected.
The train drivers’ union GDL is now allowed to call for indefinite strikes in the collective bargaining dispute with Deutsche Bahn. In a ballot, around 97 percent of the voting members were in favor of it, as the GDL in Frankfurt am Main announced. This means that strikes are possible from January 8th – until then, the GDL had already ruled out strikes in advance.
“Overall, we have an excellent feeling about what the membership of the railway companies actually wants,” said GDL boss Claus Weselsky. “And I’ll say it very clearly: They want a strike and they want to deal with their employers because they are not prepared to negotiate reductions in working hours with us.” Participation in the ballot was more than 70 percent across the companies involved.
Strikes from January 2024
Weselsky confirmed again that no strikes were to be expected during the current “Christmas truce”. Passengers can go to their families at Christmas and come back again. In the new year, the strikes are scheduled to take place shortly after New Year’s Eve, with Weselsky citing January 8th as a possible deadline. “As always, we will inform the employees in the companies and the public in a timely manner,” said the GDL boss.
In principle, strikes following a strike vote are not subject to a time limit. “You can assume that the previous warning strikes have only been a very small ray of hope,” emphasized Weselsky. What is coming now will be stronger and longer. There would be tougher times ahead for rail customers. Weselsky did not directly speak of indefinite strikes, but they are made possible by the vote results.
In previous collective bargaining rounds, strikes lasting several days were not uncommon. In 2021 the GDL went on strike for five days and in 2015 once for six days. So it’s quite possible that things will continue on this scale in January. So far, the GDL has called for warning strikes of a maximum of 24 hours in passenger transport in the ongoing collective bargaining dispute.
Union demands 35-hour week
The train drivers’ union is negotiating separately with the railways and other transport companies about new collective agreements. The central point is the demand for a reduction in working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours a week with full pay.
Deutsche Bahn’s human resources director Martin Seiler considers the demand to be unfulfillable and sees no scope at this point given the shortage of skilled workers. The union is also demanding 555 euros more per month as well as an inflation compensation bonus for a period of one year.
The railway presented the GDL with an offer in the first round of negotiations at the beginning of November, promising an eleven percent wage increase over a period of 32 months. The union has already gone on strike once in the still young collective bargaining dispute. Due to the industrial action, a good 80 percent of the long-distance journeys that were actually planned were canceled. In regional transport, the effects were even more pronounced in some federal states.