Enlarge image

Train in Berlin: appeal for a sense of responsibility

Photo: Lisi Niesner / REUTERS

Will GDL boss Claus Weselsky soon have to report to Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the collective bargaining dispute with Deutsche Bahn?

At least the CDU does not want to rule out this option.

Union parliamentary group vice-president Jens Spahn (CDU) told the “Bild” newspaper that the strikes were “massively damaging” the economy in the midst of the crisis.

The traffic light government can no longer stand idly by, “if in doubt, the Chancellor himself must mediate.”

Union parliamentary group vice-president Ulrich Lange (CSU) criticized that Deutsche Bahn and the train drivers' union GDL "have apparently lost all contact with normal people in this country."

If Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) does not have the strength to call both sides to order, the Chancellor will have to intervene.

The chairman of the Bundestag Transport Committee, Udo Schiefner (SPD), called on the GDL to return to the negotiating table.

“My appeal is very simple: the right to strike is one thing, a sense of responsibility is another,” Schiefner told the “Bild” newspaper.

He criticized GDL boss Claus Weselsky's announcement that he would forego the usual announcement of strikes in the future: "Thousands of rail customers will certainly know exactly whether not announcing the strike is acceptable.

Many are rightly fed up."

It is “a very unusual path that Mr. Weselsky is taking.”

The GDL wants to stop work for 35 hours from Wednesday evening in freight transport and from Thursday in DB passenger transport.

Afterwards there will be “wave strikes”, which the GDL no longer wants to announce 48 hours in advance, as was previously the case.

The fronts between the collective bargaining partners have hardened.

The GDL calls for the gradual introduction of the 35-hour week by 2028 with wage compensation for shift workers and the employee's right to vote.

The railway recently offered to reduce weekly working hours by one hour from 2026 and a further half hour as part of an optional model - according to the GDL without wage compensation.

Weselsky admits “errors in thinking”.

Both sides had been negotiating behind closed doors for almost four weeks since the beginning of February and with the support of two moderators - the former Interior and Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière for the railway and Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther (both CDU) for the GDL.

As a compromise, they proposed a reduction in weekly working hours to 37 hours from 2026 and to 36 hours from 2028, both with full wage compensation.

GDL boss Weselsky admitted in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on Wednesday that he had misrepresented this proposal in his press conference on Monday.

“Accidentally,” said Weselsky.

"I made a mistake in my thinking at the press conference."

The GDL boss explained that the independent intermediaries had only offered a reduction in weekly working hours to 36.5 hours, including half an hour as an optional model.

But his mistake doesn't change his rejection of the moderator's suggestion, Weselsky told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".

Because this does not contain a step towards 35 hours and other problematic aspects.

mmq/AFP