GDL strike: is the collective bargaining law failing? | tagesschau.de

The rail strike of the small trade union GDL has a lot to do with the competition with the EVG. The Unified Collective Bargaining Act encourages such conflicts, although it was intended to limit the power of the branch unions.

When train drivers and pilots go on strike, half the country keeps standing still. And this despite the fact that the unions that call for strikes usually only represent a small part of the workforce. It was with this in mind that the so-called Unified Collective Bargaining Act was passed in 2015. “It is not okay that some branch unions paralyze vital functions of our country for their particular interests,” said the then Federal Labor Minister Andrea Nahles in explanation.

That is why the principle of “one company, one collective agreement” has been in effect since 2015. If several unions represent the same professional groups in the company, the collective agreement negotiated by the union with most of the members should come into force in the event of a conflict.

Unions are fighting for top positions

There is a flaw in the system, believes the Green Party leader Anton Hofreiter: “As early as 2015 we pointed out that this law is a law that leads to more strikes and more disputes.” Because if only the larger union comes into play in collective bargaining disputes, the smaller one has to fight all the more doggedly to become bigger. For example, with particularly confrontational industrial action that is well received by some employees.

The head of the Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL), Claus Weselsky, also argues that since the law on collective bargaining, active member recruitment has been necessary. “We have understood what the legislature has issued, we have understood what the solution is, and we have opened up to all railway workers,” he said.

His union is so far significantly smaller than the competing rail and transport union EVG. In the 300 individual companies of the DB Group, according to a survey by the railway, the GDL is only ahead in 16 companies. However, a particularly large number of train drivers and train attendants are organized at the GDL – and when they go on strike, it has the same violent effects. A small union with great power, regardless of the collective bargaining law.

Unions should cooperate

Employment lawyer Gregor Thüsing from the University of Bonn does not find the law helpful in averting collective bargaining disputes like this one either. “The collective bargaining unit law does not provoke such labor disputes, but it does not prevent these labor disputes either,” he says. “And so it doesn’t work the way it was hoped for, and that’s why the actors have a special responsibility to try to minimize the negative effects of trade union competition by negotiating together and cooperating with one another.”

So: the unions should form negotiating communities in the long term. The labor lawyer advises that this will ultimately also succeed in other companies. Meanwhile, Hofreiter demands that the collective bargaining law be abolished as soon as possible.