Deutsche Bahn is trying to cushion the worst consequences of the announced three-day rail strike. As with the two warning strikes last year, there is an emergency timetable from Wednesday to Friday, as the company announced. However, Deutsche Bahn expects that millions of train passengers will be affected by the strike by the train drivers’ union GDL. This would only change if the company prevails in court with its urgent application against the industrial dispute by Tuesday.
With the emergency timetable, significantly fewer trains will run. The group wants to use longer trains with more seats on the remaining connections so that as many people as possible can get to their destination. However, the train cannot guarantee a ride. The impact of the strike is therefore likely to be drastic. During previous warning strikes, 80 percent of long-distance trains were canceled. There are also likely to be massive restrictions in regional transport. The railway advises postponing non-essential journeys and wants to be accommodating when it comes to tickets.
“For our taste, one could negotiate more often before starting strikes,” says the chairman of the Pro Bahn passenger association, Detlef Neuß South German newspaper. He called for greater protection of passengers: “In Italy and France, strike timetables are agreed with the unions in order to maintain a minimum number of connections. That would also be good in Germany.” Then fewer trains would be canceled, says Neuß. After all, unlike the warning strikes in 2023, the GDL followed the request to announce the current strike not just one, but a good two days in advance. “This makes it easier for employees to arrange to work from home or carpool with colleagues.”
The railway is trying to legally stop the 64-hour strike from Wednesday night to Friday evening at 6 p.m. She filed an urgent application for an interim injunction with the Frankfurt am Main labor court to prevent the industrial action. “This strike is not only absolutely unnecessary, but we also believe it is not legally permissible,” explained Deutsche Bahn’s human resources director Martin Seiler. The train drivers’ union lost its ability to collectively bargain because it founded a temporary workers’ cooperative. With this Fair Train cooperative, GDL chairman Claus Weselsky wants to poach train drivers from the railway and then loan them back to the company at their own wages. From the railway’s perspective, it acts like an employer.
The lawsuit will probably not be decided until Tuesday
Union boss Weselsky was initially relaxed about this. The cooperative and the union are clearly separated from each other. The railway is inadmissibly linking this question to its lawsuit against the strike and will fail. The lawsuit against the cooperative “once again shows the desperation of an employer who is alien to society” and who is not afraid of any means, no matter how absurd, to eliminate the strong union.
“We rely on the law being on our side,” said Weselsky. “We have legitimately raised demands, legally terminated all collective agreements and are firmly convinced that we will get justice in the labor court this time too.” A three-day strike would certainly not be disproportionate.
When it comes to lawsuits against labor disputes, unions more often win in court. However, things can sometimes work out differently. Last year, the much larger GDL competitor union EVG stopped a planned strike after the railway went to court and a settlement was reached.
In the current dispute between GDL and Bahn, the losing party is likely to go to the second instance, so the final decision on the lawsuit will probably only be made on Tuesday – less than a day before the planned strike. Like the railway, the regional train operator Transdev, who was also on strike, is also suing the union.
The train drivers’ union announced on Sunday evening that it would paralyze train traffic in Germany for several days in a row this week for the first time in this collective bargaining round. This means that far more train cancellations are to be expected than during the warning strikes in November and December, which each lasted one day. The announcement on Sunday ended the railway’s attempt to prevent the major strike that the GDL had long envisaged with a new offer.
For the first time in this collective bargaining round, Bahn personnel director Seiler wants to meet the union’s core demand of implementing shorter working hours. Shift workers should be able to freely choose whether they work 35 hours a week instead of the current 38 hours a week. Using certain apps, employees should also be able to realize 80 percent of their shift requests.
However, there is still a big difference. GDL boss Claus Weselsky is demanding that working hours be reduced to 35 hours without the employees receiving a cent less pay. The railway has so far completely rejected this full wage compensation. Now, HR director Seiler said about wage compensation that he wanted to talk to the GDL about “what could be implemented”.
That’s far too little for the union. The new offer is “insubstantial and poisonous”. Weselsky refers to recent collective bargaining agreements with the regional rail operators Netinera and Go-Ahead. They have recognized the stress that their employees are exposed to and that incentives are urgently needed to make professions that have been neglected for years attractive again. The companies mentioned not only granted wage increases, but also wanted to gradually reduce working hours to 35 hours from 2025 without reducing wages. In doing so, they showed “that employee motivation is not just an empty phrase and have thereby made labor disputes unnecessary,” explains the GDL.
Passengers can use tickets later during the strike
The GDL had already obtained approval from its members for indefinite strikes at the railways before Christmas. If a train doesn’t run at all or arrives at least an hour late, a rail passenger can demand a refund of the ticket price. According to Deutsche Bahn, all passengers who would like to postpone trips planned for the strike period can use their ticket at a later date. The train connection has been lifted. The ticket is valid for the journey to the original destination, even with a changed route. Seat reservations can be canceled free of charge.
Passengers can also bring their trip forward to Tuesday, they said Goodwill policy of the group (https://www.bahn.de/info/sonderkulanz). information about the rights of rail passengers is available, among other things, from the arbitration board for public transport (https://soep-online.de/rechte-bahnreisen/).