Deutsche Bahn: Train drivers’ union votes for indefinite strikes

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This means that Deutsche Bahn is threatened with strikes lasting several days and thousands of train cancellations next year. By voting, members of the machinists’ union GDL have paved the way for indefinite industrial action, as GDL boss Claus Weselsky announced on Tuesday in Frankfurt am Main.

97 percent of voting members were in favor. “Overall, our colleagues have sent a clear signal,” Weselsky said of the result. Indefinite strikes required 75 percent approval. According to Weselsky, the turnout was more than 70 percent.

The union had recently promised not to call for industrial action until January 7, but after that the vote gives Weselsky and his members the opportunity to strike on the tracks for days. “What comes next will be stronger, longer and harder for the customers,” the union boss announced, compared to previous warning strikes.

The GDL and Deutsche Bahn have only been negotiating in the current collective labor agreement dispute since the beginning of November, but they quickly became stuck. Already after the second round, Weselsky declared that the negotiations had failed and subsequently pushed the vote among the GDL members.

A central sticking point in the conflict is the reduction in weekly working hours for full-wage shift workers, as demanded by the GDL. The association wants to achieve a reduction from 38 to 35 hours. The railway considers this unfeasible, partly in view of the shortage of skilled workers.

In addition, the association demands, among other things, 555 euros more per month and a tax-free inflation compensation bonus. The railway has, among other things, already promised eleven percent more – but with a term of 32 months.

After a strike vote, strikes no longer need to be limited in time. “We are so responsible that we will not strike forever,” Weselsky said recently. But there will be no more 24-hour strikes.

Longer strikes require strike votes because this is the only way to ensure that a broad majority of members support the union leadership’s strategy. For employees, every strike day means loss of income. Although unions compensate the loss of wages and salaries from the strike fund, they usually do not reimburse the full amount. The employees therefore send a signal via a ballot paper that they are prepared to make this financial sacrifice.

In the current collective labor agreement dispute, the union has stopped most passenger trains twice with warning strikes of 20 or 24 hours. Together with the labor disputes of the railway and transport union EVG, there have been four warning strikes on the railways this year.

(SDA)

Source: Blick