Union wants 555 euros more: GDL train drivers demand more money and less working hours

Union wants 555 euros more
GDL train drivers demand more money and less working hours

For weeks, the railway has been in a tough wage dispute with the EVG union. Now the somewhat smaller GDL is struggling with its demands: In the end, not only more money should jump out for the train drivers.

The GDL train drivers’ union is aiming for a significant wage increase and a reduction in working hours for the wage negotiations with Deutsche Bahn, which will begin in the autumn. The core demands include a “general pay increase” of 555 euros, an increase in allowances for shift work by 25 percent and a reduction in the weekly working time from 38 to 35 hours for shift workers without a proportional reduction in wages. Likewise, the GDL wants to push through a tax-free inflation compensation premium of 3000 euros. The term of the collective agreement should be a maximum of twelve months, as the union further announced.

The demand of the GDL with its federal chairman Claus Weselsky bursts in the middle of the ongoing collective bargaining dispute between Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the much larger railway and transport union EVG. Since the end of February, EVG, which competes with GDL, has been trying to negotiate a salary increase of 650 euros per month or 12 percent for the upper wage groups at Deutsche Bahn and dozens of other railway companies. She negotiates for around 230,000 employees, a good 180,000 of whom work for Deutsche Bahn.

The state-owned group has so far been willing to pay percentage increases of between 8 and 12 percent (depending on the income group) in two stages, plus an inflation compensation premium of EUR 2,850 in two stages. The Deutsche Bahn plans a term of 24 months – twice as long as the union. Between the DB and the GDL there is still a peace obligation until the end of October, only then will there be a dispute – and possibly a warning strike. In recent years, the GDL has always been very tough in collective bargaining and has repeatedly put the railways under pressure with warning strikes.

The last collective bargaining dispute between GDL and Deutsche Bahn was resolved in September 2021. At that time, wage increases of a total of 3.3 percent and one-off payments were agreed – in view of the significantly increased inflation, a deal of this magnitude is completely out of the question this time. At that time, however, the union also managed to conclude collective agreements for employees in workshops and in administration. In this way, she tries to increase her influence in the DB Group, even if the collective agreements are not always applied. There were three strikes in this wage conflict, mediated by the prime ministers of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Stephan Weil and Daniel Günther.

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