The train drivers want to strike again from Wednesday to Friday. Photo: dpa/Christoph Schmidt
Commuters have to expect train cancellations and delays: The train drivers have announced that they want to strike for three days from Wednesday.
The collective bargaining dispute is entering the next round: The train drivers want to go on strike for three days this week. The train drivers’ union (GDL) announced this on Sunday evening. The strike is scheduled to begin on Wednesday morning at 2 a.m. and last until Friday evening at 6 p.m.
A statement from the GDL states that the Deutsche Bahn Group “did not use the Christmas truce to counteract industrial action with a negotiable offer.”
Deutsche Bahn consistently “announced in a deliberately misleading manner” that the railway had submitted a new offer to the GDL. This “insubstantial and poisonous offer” deliberately deceives the media and the public and ignores the recently successful collective negotiations, according to the statement.
Workers should be able to choose the number of hours themselves
The railway submitted an offer to the union on Friday with the union’s core demand to reduce the working hours of shift workers from 38 to 35 hours. The idea: Employees should 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 receive 5.7 percent less pay. The railway offers to reduce the weekly working hours even further in this mode.
On the basis of this proposal, the union and the railway actually wanted to sit down at the table next Wednesday for new negotiations.
However, the situation is tense. In the midst of the collective bargaining dispute, the railway had last week legal action was taken against the train drivers’ union. The railway wants to have it clarified in court whether the GDL is even allowed to conclude collective agreements. A corresponding declaratory action was filed with the Hessian State Labor Court.