Claus Weselsky causes a lack of understanding with his incorrect representation of the collective bargaining round

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GDL boss Claus Weselsky: “mistake in thinking” was made

Photo: Hannibal Hanschke / EPA

The head of the train drivers' union GDL, Claus Weselsky, caused a lack of understanding with the false representation of an interim status in the railway collective bargaining.

Former Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther (both CDU) presented the GDL with a compromise proposal as moderators during the weeks of negotiations between the two collective bargaining parties.

This envisaged a reduction in weekly working hours in two steps to 36 hours by 2028 with full wage compensation.

The railway accepted the proposal.

The GDL refused.

The talks therefore failed last week and the union called for the next strike.

At a press conference on Monday, Weselsky presented the compromise proposal differently: It would have included a reduction to just 37 hours with full wage compensation, he said.

A further half hour reduction would have been purely optional and associated with financial losses for the employees.

Later, when asked by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” Weselsky admitted that he had made a “mistake in thinking.”

But that doesn't change his attitude in the negotiations, he added.

Observers cannot understand this.

In the collective bargaining dispute, the GDL is demanding, among other things, a reduction in weekly working hours from 38 to 35 hours with full wage compensation.

The railway would therefore almost meet the union's maximum demands.

“We were prepared to go beyond our own pain threshold and accept this proposal,” said a railway spokesman.

"It's all the more incomprehensible to us that people insist on maximum demands, don't move an inch, get up and leave the negotiations."

The President of the Federal Association of Local Rail Transport, Thomas Prechtl, expressed his understanding that misinterpretations could occur after numerous rounds.

He also acknowledged that Weselsky had admitted what he called a “mistake in thinking.”

But it shouldn't happen "that millions of passengers from Thursday onwards won't be able to come to work again because of such a mistake in thinking, because trains won't be running due to the strike."

Weselsky's deputy, Mario Reiß, rejected the allegations.

“It is wrong if someone out there says that we are not accommodating to the employer,” said Reiß.

The GDL negotiators were prepared to reduce the wage demands from 555 euros more per month to 420 euros per month.

The GDL has already reached agreements with 28 other railway companies at this level.

The 35-hour week is also anchored there.

However, these collective agreements are subject to conclusion at Deutsche Bahn.

If the GDL does not implement the three-hour reduction in working hours there, the contracts already concluded with the competitors will be adjusted again.

ssu/dpa