Tariff conflict at the railway
GDL boss Weselsky rejects arbitration
January 14, 2024, 2:32 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The GDL union wants to achieve a reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers with full wage compensation at the railway. Another key requirement is the collective agreement for dispatchers. After the threat of a longer, harder strike, GDL boss Weselsky is against arbitration.
The chairman of the train drivers’ union GDL, Claus Weselsky, rejects mediation in the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Bahn. “Constitutional matters” cannot be arbitrated, he told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. “I won’t put the question of whether I can get a collective agreement for dispatchers into the hands of an arbitrator.”
In addition to the reduction in weekly working hours, the collective agreement for dispatchers is one of the GDL’s central demands in the industrial dispute. The union had increased the pressure on the railway with a three-day strike until Friday evening and is now expecting a new offer from the company.
For the fourth time since 2007/2008, the railway management is depriving people of the railway with the same exercise, Weselsky continued to tell the newspapers. “First of all they don’t want to give us a collective agreement – then we’ll get it.” He was convinced that the GDL would also get a collective agreement for dispatchers who coordinate train operations. As the collective bargaining dispute progresses, Weselsky announced that he would continue to increase the pressure. “In principle it will be longer and harder – that is the message,” he said. “I don’t think I’m taking much time.”
Weselsky sees “no substantive offer coming”
However, the union does not want to go on an indefinite strike at this time, “because we see responsibility for the entire system and because we think the effects would be too great,” said Weselsky. However, an extension of the work stoppage is possible: “Whether I go on strike for three or five days depends on what happens.” The railway has to submit a substantial offer – “and I don’t see any substantive offer coming at the moment.”
The third and longest labor dispute to date in the collective bargaining dispute with the railways began early on Wednesday morning in passenger transport and on Tuesday evening in freight transport. According to its own information, the railway put a good 20 percent of the usual long-distance transport on the rails with an emergency timetable. In regional transport, the effects of the strike varied greatly depending on the federal state. In December, the GDL received its members’ vote for indefinite strikes in a strike vote – so union boss Weselsky can decide quite freely when and for how long he calls for industrial action.