PotassiumSoon after the third wave of strikes began, in a wage dispute with the union German Engine Drivers Union (GDL), Deutsche Bahn made a new tariff offer on Wednesday. In addition to the 3.2% salary increase, there is now also a specially quantified Corona special bonus. “In GDL’s organizational area, depending on the compensation group, 400 or 600 euros will be allocated,” the company said in a statement released on Wednesday evening. As part of the package, the union asked for an insurance premium of 600 euros.
In the conflict over the duration of the collective agreement, Deutsche Bahn has also taken a step towards the union: unlike its earlier collective bargaining proposal, it proposed a 36-month compromise instead of the previous 40 months. She did not provide any further information on the effective date of the planned two-phase tariff increase. GDL requires employees to achieve an initial increase of 1.4% during the year. So far, Deutsche Bahn’s proposal provides for a 1.5% interest rate in the first phase of the spring of 2022.
Whether the new proposal will relax the front is still up in the air initially. Ten days ago, GDL responded negatively to the railway’s initial unquantified negotiation bonus. Martin Seiler, Bahn’s director of personnel, called the new initiative a “clear message.”To the address of the GDL boss Klaus Wesselski He said: “Come to the negotiating table and stop irresponsible industrial actions!”
No sign of short-term stop
The union initially announced at 5 pm on Wednesday. strike Began to engage in freight. Starting Thursday night, it also called on its passenger transport members to carry out a new strike. These should last until Tuesday, more than twice the number of strikes in the previous two waves. Initially, there was no indication that GDL could stop the strike in the short term.
However, some railway customers want to know if there may be other mechanisms that can quickly end the seemingly endless conflict between GDL and railways. This includes the question of how long a union can pay its members’ strike payments in the event of a strike. However, after careful inspection, it is clear that GDL in particular should not rely on short strike funds-it has particularly large financial resources.
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This is mainly because GDL belongs to DBB Beamtenbund. In addition to her own reserves, she also has the right to obtain financial solidarity from a wealthy umbrella organization. The details are stipulated by DBB’s “Strike Fund Support Regulations”. Specifically, GDL can receive compensation of up to 50 Euros per person per strike day from what the DBB calls the Action Fund, which is used to pay all strike costs to its members. Since DBB has approximately 1.3 million members, two-thirds of which are civil servants who are not authorized to strike, so the fund is unlikely to reach its financial limits—especially through a small organization with fewer than 10,000 strikers. If DBB is worried about their strike, the situation is not so comfortable for GDL. During the train drivers’ strike in 2015, there were temporary doubts about whether the Umbrella Association would approve their applications; at the time, Weselsky’s powerful method did not persuade everyone in the umbrella organization. This time, DBB boss Ulrich Silberbach was clearly on the side of GDL from the beginning. DBB did not provide any information on whether the latter has applied for funding in the current conflict.
The prospect of a possible “political solution” to the conflict is no cheaper than hope of empty strike funds. Federal Minister of Transportation Andreas Shure (CSU) asked GDL to conduct a new arbitration procedure two weeks ago-but it was unsuccessful. Dietmar Bartsch, the leader of the left-wing parliamentary caucus, instead proposed that Prime Minister Angela Merkel (CDU) should prevent the GDL from going on strike and “instruct the railway company to meet the requirements.”
However, this is impossible politically or legally, unless the legislature creates new facts. In addition to all the substantive issues, this also encountered a technical obstacle-like any other consideration of changing the law in response to a strike: the federal election. It will take some time for the new majority of the government to function. After the 2017 general election, it lasted until April. In this context, the hope that labor disputes may be ended without political intervention and short strike funds seems more realistic.
