Deutsche Bahn passengers still have to fear a new strike - but the Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL) has not yet said when.
The train drivers' representatives renewed their threat of a labor dispute at a rally in front of the railway tower in Berlin on Tuesday.
“You know that we have to use this last resort again if the management, supported by the owner, continues to behave like this,” GDL chairman Claus Weselsky called out to the 75 union members who had been registered with the police.
However, he failed to make an appointment.
The union announced last week that after the rally it would be “only a very short time” until the next strike.
However, Weselsky had assured that passengers would be able to prepare for a strike longer than the first time.
This last week only took 15 hours from the announcement to the two-day strike.
The GDL boss had also indicated that the next strike could last longer and include a weekend.
Weselsky rejects arbitration
The GDL will not agree to a collective agreement like at the airports, said Weselsky with reference to the present offer of the railway. The offer made by Deutsche Bahn “cannot be made with us,” he said. If the group sticks to this stance, "then we will see to it that the light goes on and its pockets". The completion of the public service is also a narrow result in view of the increased inflation.
Weselsky also rejected an arbitration brought up by Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU): “What takes place here cannot be arbitrated.” Weselsky also accused the management of wanting to reduce company pensions.
The railway rejects that.
The union is calling for a wage increase as early as 2021 and a corona bonus of 600 euros.
Deutsche Bahn has so far rejected both;
she doesn't want to pay more money until 2022.
The company repeatedly called the GDL back to the negotiating table.
Dispute between unions
The GDL strike is taking place against the background of the ongoing conflict between the train drivers' union and the EVG, which has more members. The Unified Collective Bargaining Act evidently changed little in these areas. The strike over higher wages, the corona premium and the term of a collective agreement is ultimately a struggle for existence for the GDL. With the set of rules, the federal legislature wanted to achieve a fragmentation of the union camps and a growing power for smaller special unions - like the GDL.
According to its own information, the GDL represents the interests of 37,000 members throughout Germany, 20,000 of whom are supposed to be train drivers and train staff.
With 184,000 members, however, the EVG is clearly the larger union.
The railway has promised both unions a joint existence in the group.
But the law provides, to a certain extent, for the GDL to be ousted.
It takes effect when several collective agreements for the same group of employees clash in a company and the unions are unable to come to an agreement among themselves.
In this case of conflict, the collective agreement concluded with the union with the larger number of members would apply.
According to the law, the unsuccessful union then only has the right to be granted an identical collective agreement.
The Federal Constitutional Court approved the unified collective bargaining law, which is highly controversial among small trade unions. This cleared the way for the majority societies. The DBB Beamtenbund, to which the GDL also belongs as an individual union, criticized the decision at the time as difficult to understand. The chairman at the time, Klaus Dauderstädt, spoke of a “compulsory tariff unit”. GDL boss Claus Weselsky is still one of the deputy federal chairmen in the DBB.
As a result, the DBB showed solidarity with the train drivers' union and also took part in the rally on Tuesday. “The DBB is a community based on solidarity. If one of our member unions is forced to go on strike, like the GDL is now by DB management, then we stand together, ”said its federal chairman Ulrich Silberbach. The public service workers showed their solidarity with the train drivers.