From Wednesday, the Deutsche Bahn train drivers’ union is calling for a strike. The UN is bankrupt and has to close its headquarters in Geneva – because the US is also not paying

In the collective labor agreement negotiation dispute with Deutsche Bahn, the train drivers’ union GDL has called for a multi-day strike starting on Wednesday. The union announced on Sunday evening in Frankfurt am Main that employees must stop working from January 10 at 2 a.m. to January 12 at 6 p.m.

At DB Cargo the strike starts on Tuesday at 6 p.m. According to its own information, Deutsche Bahn assumes that the GDL strike will have a “huge impact” on rail operations and has announced that it will provide information “as quickly and completely as possible”.

The railway strongly criticized the new GDL strike and announced it would take immediate legal action to stop it. An urgent request for an interim injunction will be filed with the Frankfurt am Main labor court, the railway company said. The DB called on the GDL to call off the strike and instead attend a negotiation date proposed by the railways in Berlin on Wednesday. “Solutions can only be found at the negotiating table,” Seiler explains.

The GDL explained that negotiations with Deutsche Bahn had already collapsed at the end of November due to the company’s “reluctance” to “conduct discussions on legitimate core demands with the GDL”.

The railways also did not benefit from a “Christmas truce” declared by the union “to counter industrial action with a negotiable offer”. The GDL on Friday rejected a new offer from Deutsche Bahn to negotiate more flexible working hours as an “insubstantial and toxic offer”.

Fronts paved

The fronts in the collective bargaining conflict have hardened. The GDL stated in November that negotiations with the railways and with competitor Transdev had failed. At the heart of the matter is the GDL’s demand for a reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours with full pay.

With the new offer, the railway took advantage of reduced working hours for the first time. However, Seiler refuses to pay employees the same wages.

Instead, Deutsche Bahn proposes to expand the existing working time choice models. Until now, employees can decide for themselves whether they want more money, more vacation or fewer working days per week. You could reduce your weekly hours from 39 to 37, but you would then receive 5.7 percent less pay. The railway now offers the option to reduce the weekly working time in this mode to 35 hours. If you want, you can also work up to 40 hours a week for a little more money. Seiler emphasized that anyone who decides to work shorter hours will have to compromise on a collectively agreed wage increase.

“How strange and far from the employer does the HR director have to be to offer a part-time model financed by the employee himself?” criticized GDL boss Claus Weselsky. (sda/afp/dpa)