There is little movement in the railway collective bargaining dispute – after the recent strike, the train drivers’ union GDL is waiting for a new offer from the railway. Union boss Weselsky does not want to resolve the dispute through arbitration.
The chairman of the train drivers’ union GDL, Claus Weselsky, rejects mediation in the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Bahn. “Constitutional matters” cannot be arbitrated, he told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. “I won’t put the question of whether I can get a collective agreement for dispatchers into the hands of an arbitrator,” said Weselsky. In addition to the reduction in weekly working hours, the collective agreement for dispatchers is one of the GDL’s central demands in the industrial dispute.
The union recently increased the pressure on the railway with a three-day strike until Friday evening and is now expecting a new offer. Weselsky was convinced that the GDL would also get a collective agreement for dispatchers who coordinate train operations. As the collective bargaining dispute progresses, Weselsky announced that he would continue to increase the pressure. “In principle it will be longer and harder – that is the message,” he said. “I don’t think I’m taking much time.”
No indefinite strike
However, the union does not want to go on an indefinite strike at this time, “because we see responsibility for the entire system and because we think the effects would be too great,” said Weselsky. However, an extension of the work stoppage is possible: “Whether I go on strike for three or five days depends on what happens.” The railway has to submit a substantial offer – “and I don’t see any substantive offer coming at the moment.”