In the collective bargaining conflict between Deutsche Bahn and the train drivers' union GDL, the risk of a labor dispute is increasing at the beginning of the new travel season, of all things: a negotiating round of the collective bargaining parties, which was eagerly awaited, did not bring any rapprochement on Monday.
Instead, Bahn personnel director Martin Seiler accused the GDL of “confrontation at any price” after the conversation.
Dietrich Creutzburg
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Initially there was no communication from the union. However, Seiler himself already indicated that he now apparently fears strikes: The GDL management is "consciously" accepting damage to customers and railways - "and that in the midst of the rising desire to travel after the corona lockdown," he explained. The negotiation on Monday had "shown that the union leadership is primarily about confrontation and the expansion of their areas of responsibility".
The GDL had started with a tariff demand, which, among other things, provided for salary increases of 4.8 percent and a special corona bonus. The dispute is also indirectly about the balance of power between the train drivers 'union and the numerically larger railroad workers' union EVG: The GDL defends itself against the fact that the railway only wants to use collective agreements of the EVG in 55 of 71 companies in which both are represented. The employer assumes that the EVG represents the majority of the employees in these companies.