Status: 07/16/2021 1:45 p.m.
The wage dispute between Deutsche Bahn and the train drivers’ union GDL is a seemingly never-ending story. New strikes threaten in August. What’s behind this conflict?
The relationship between Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL) is deeply divided. “What we consider harmful is the rail board, which fills its pockets with bonuses and takes away the company pension from the little people,” said GDL chairman Claus Weselsky in an interview with tagesschau.de. When asked about this, DB Human Resources Director Martin Seiler replies that this is simply wrong. “The opposite is the case. This year, there was a zero wage round for all executives because of the corona damage and significant cuts in variable remuneration receive variable remuneration, “said Seiler. This would save a total of around 400 million euros. Two diametrically divergent views that are symptomatic of the relationship between Bahn and GDL.
With around 211,000 employees, DB is one of the largest employers in Germany. The GDL no longer only represents around 20,000 train drivers and train attendants, but is also opening up to more and more professional groups. It is now represented in 71 of the 300 rail companies, in 16 of which it has the majority. Nevertheless, with around 37,000 members, it is still “a small trade union, but very homogeneous,” explains politics professor Wolfgang Schroeder from the University of Kassel. In his eyes, the GDL is “a protest union the likes of which has not existed in the German trade union landscape for decades”.
Power struggle of the trade unions
But there is more to it than that: the power struggle between two railway workers’ unions. The GDL’s much larger competitor is the EVG, the railway and transport union with around 185,000 members. After the basic collective bargaining agreement between the two unions with DB expired at the end of last year, this year the state-owned company will apply the Unified Collective Bargaining Act (TEG), which was passed in 2015, for the first time. It says: In a company, i.e. a professional group, only one collective agreement applies. And in the event of a dispute with competing unions, only the collective agreement of the union with the largest number of members is valid. Smaller unions such as the GDL, on the other hand, are upset because they see their right to conclude their own collective agreements restricted.
The GDL has been suing the Federal Constitutional Court against the collective bargaining law since 2017 – so far without success. According to Schroeder, who has been researching trade union competition since 2008, the GDL is waging a “fight against the establishment”. And for the GDL, this includes not only the employer, but also the other trade union, i.e. the EVG, said Schroeder. While the group-related EVG sees itself as a “union committed to the common good and the strategic development of the railway”, the GDL wants to stage itself through an “offensive fighting position as the real representative of the employees in order to strengthen its role in the competition,” explains the Political scientist.
Hardened fronts in the current wage dispute
GDL boss Weselsky recently described DB personnel director Seiler as a “baron of lies”, new tariff proposals of the railway as “sham offers”. While the railway and transport union EVG reached an agreement with DB last September on a new collective agreement, there is still no agreement with the GDL. As with EVG, the employer recently offered 1.5 percent more money from 2022 and a further 1.7 percent increase from March 2023. In Corona times, which put a heavy strain on the company economically, this is a “neat and negotiable offer and with 3.2 process what the GDL requires, but with a longer duration,” says DB HR Director Seiler.
The GDL refused indignantly. She has meanwhile reduced her own demands, but wants 1.4 percent more salary for the current year, a one-time Corona aid of 600 euros and another 1.8 percent more money from 2022. The GDL is currently in a strike vote of the members on industrial action to be counted on August 9th. If more than 90 percent of the votes are approved, which Weselsky firmly expects, a strike will then take place in order to enforce their own demands. So far, GDL has not wanted to come to a negotiating table with DB. “That is what I am criticizing, because strikes are the last resort – especially if there have not been any serious negotiations for a minute,” criticized Seiler.
Weselsky fights for the independence of the GDL
The DB has invited both the GDL and the EVG to talks in order to pave the way for a “collective peace” and the way to coexistence. “We are in no way about endangering the existence of the GDL”, emphasized DB Human Resources Director Seiler tagesschau.de. “We want to maintain a good collective bargaining partnership with both unions,” said Seiler. For this, the railway is ready for tariff plurality. This means that both unions could apply their own collective agreement.
Bahn personnel manager Seiler hopes that the power struggle between the two unions and the dispute over the TEG will not ultimately be carried out at the expense of rail customers if there are strikes in August. “We suffered considerable damage from the corona pandemic, in excess of ten billion euros. We are happy that customers are just getting back on the trains,” said Seiler. GDL board member Weselsky did not want to comment on the new peace offer of the railway. However, it is very unlikely that the GDL will accept the offer. So the signs are still on strike.