Deutsche Bahn has expanded its range of tariffs at the weekend to include the Corona premium you require. But you harshly refused. Why?
Corinna Budras
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Dietrich Creutzburg
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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I have not seen an offer in which a specific Corona premium is anchored.
I saw a two-page letter that said nothing but blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blazing another attempt to use tricks and deceit to distract from the real problem.
If we are offered "a corona premium", then one euro or three euros can be behind it.
This is not an offer.
And the 3.2 percent that you wrote in there again and again, without changing the running time - that is also not an offer.
Couldn't that have at least been an introduction to new conversations?
No.
On June 7th, we let the negotiations fail with an offer of 3.2 percent for a 40-month term.
That is why we are now in a labor dispute, and there is no negotiation about the same nonsense.
Now it is shown that the employees are at odds with their managers.
You are asking for a corona premium of 600 euros. For what? Wasn't working at the railroad a lukewarm job during the lockdown?
So, I expect a reputable newspaper to speak seriously.
What is a tepid job for you?
When someone accompanies trains outside during pandemic times.
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. . . accompanied by empty trains. . .
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and who caused empty trains to run across the country?
But not train drivers and train attendants.
That was the management.
They continued to use themselves in the group's money cycle, because when the trains are running, they get train path charges.
All money from the taxpayer.
We didn't have to drive so much.
But our people drove.
It was the systemically important employees who kept the railroad running.
And for that they earned more than a zero round or - at 3.8 percent inflation - a whopping minus round.
The railway is in a crisis due to the pandemic. Doesn't that matter?
The railway was already in a serious crisis with 30 billion euros in debt, Corona only reveals that.
She received compensation from tax money - but we are dealing with a distribution problem: The management is reaching into the pockets of the little people, has terminated the company pension and wants to provide itself with bonuses and enormous pensions.
We live in this injustice.
The railroad workers say: Stop it!
But there is the crisis. And you say that high demands and strikes are still justified?
What world do you live in?
We are calling for a 1.4 percent wage increase in 2021, with 3.8 percent inflation.
Is that supposed to be an exaggerated requirement?
Then the core of the conflict is probably that the GDL wants to expand its power base to new areas such as train stations and workshops - in competition with the trade union EVG?
I can see that we as GDL already represent a majority of employees in the vast majority of companies in the transport sector - long-distance transport, regional transport, cargo.
And what is our rightful role as a union?
We organize people, with success.
3000 new members have joined us in the last twelve months.
Of these, 25 percent came from the EVG, and three quarters were not organized beforehand.
What, please, is wrong with that?
So there is a struggle to expand the power base?
We do what is law and what is law.
And that includes: Every union has the right to conclude collective agreements for its members, regardless of the area in which they are employed.
Let's take a dispatcher who is organized with us: Why should I tell him that I don't want to sign collective agreements for him - but that he should please pay us union fees?
This is not about the expansion of power, but first and foremost a fundamental right, namely that of freedom of association.
If Deutsche Bahn were willing to conclude collective agreements with you for these groups, would the conflict be resolved?
If it were that simple: If you follow the line of reasoning of Deutsche Bahn, they could theoretically conclude these collective agreements with us in passing.
She takes the position that we as GDL only have a majority of members in 16 out of 300 companies;
and according to the rules of the Unified Collective Bargaining Act, our collective agreements would then only be effective in these companies.
But just ask the railway if it is ready for it.
I tell you: If the real majority relationships are finally clarified in court proceedings, it will come out that we have the majority in far more companies.
But that is not the subject of this collective bargaining round.
And what happens now?
Our strike is on until 2 a.m. on Wednesday.
Then it is Deutsche Bahn's turn.
And if she continues to make such great "offers", we will see the next labor dispute.
An indefinite strike?
I never talk about open-ended labor disputes in the railroad system.
But we can also strike longer than before.