Negotiations are stuck
EVG threatens to paralyze Bahn for weeks
4/28/2023 5:14 am
The railway union has twice paralyzed train services in recent weeks. That could only have been the beginning: After the failed third round of negotiations in the collective bargaining dispute, the EVG let the sabers rattle loudly.
In the wage dispute with the railways, the railway union EVG is threatening to expand its strikes. “The next strikes will last longer,” chief negotiator Cosima Ingenschay told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The EVG could “paralyze the train for weeks” if necessary.
The union is in a violent wage conflict with the railways and other train companies. Last Friday and at the end of March, it paralyzed rail traffic almost all over Germany for many hours. In the future, it is conceivable that the union would call different professional groups to go on strike in turn, such as train attendants and maintenance workers, or set different regional priorities, according to Ingenschay.
The EVG accuses employers of refusing an acceptable wage offer. “It’s the railways that are provoking the new strikes,” said Ingenschay. It demands that preconditions are accepted. For example, the railways must agree in advance to set the statutory minimum wage of twelve euros in the collective agreement. Bahn HR director Martin Seiler, on the other hand, had asked the EVG not to set any preconditions, but to resolve such questions with him at the negotiating table. He offers about ten percent more wages for middle and low earners plus almost 3000 euros inflation bonus with a term of the collective agreement of 27 months.
For a period of twelve months, the EVG calls for wage increases of a total of twelve percent, but at least EUR 650 gross per month. This would apply to around 230,000 employees. So far there has been little movement in the negotiations; the third round failed on Wednesday. The next appointment is scheduled for the end of May.