Urgent application against Weselsky
Bahn wants to stop the GDL strike in court
January 8, 2024, 5:00 a.m
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It’s a tough week for commuters: farmers’ protests are paralyzing traffic on the streets. There is a risk of a strike by train drivers from Wednesday. The railway pulls the emergency brake and applies to court to call off the strike.
Before the multi-day strike by the train drivers’ union GDL this week, Deutsche Bahn is hoping for a quick stop signal from the judges. After the strike date was announced, the company announced that it would apply to the Frankfurt Labor Court for an urgent application for an interim injunction to stop the strike. According to the group, the strike has no legal basis. The railway is still calling on its passengers to postpone trips if possible. A preliminary decision by the labor court could be made quickly in expedited proceedings. The judges could deal with the matter as early as this Monday.
The GDL wants to strike in passenger transport from Wednesday at 2 a.m. to Friday at 6 p.m. Severe disruptions are expected. Experience has shown that even before the strike, some trains do not run according to plan. In addition, it usually takes some time for traffic to return to normal. With the strike, the union led by its chairman Claus Weselsky wants to increase the pressure in the collective bargaining dispute, which is about money but also about shorter working hours for shift workers with full pay. The railway rejects this.
Longer trains and emergency timetables
During two shorter GDL warning strikes last year, the railway had to cancel around 80 percent of its long-distance transport services. The effects on regional transport varied greatly depending on the region. In some federal states there were almost no trains running anymore. Unless the strike participation differs fundamentally, similar effects to those of the two warning strikes can now be expected.
The railway announced on Sunday evening that it would draw up an emergency timetable for long-distance, regional and S-Bahn traffic, but that it would only contain a “very limited range of trains”. “Please refrain from unnecessary travel during the GDL strike and postpone your trip to another time,” said an online information. According to a statement, as part of the emergency timetable, DB wants to use longer trains with more seats in long-distance transport in order to be able to bring as many people as possible to their destination. “However, a ride cannot be guaranteed,” the company said.
Dispute over temporary employment agency
“This strike is not only absolutely unnecessary, but we also believe it is not legally permissible,” said Deutsche Bahn’s human resources director Martin Seiler. “Because the train drivers’ union lost its ability to bargain by founding its temporary workers’ cooperative.”
The GDL founded this cooperative called Fair Train in the summer. According to Weselsky, the company’s aim is to poach train drivers from the railway and to hire them out to railway companies under their own tariff conditions. It is unclear whether this will work and especially whether there will be enough train drivers who quit the railway and work at Fair Train.
The railway sees a conflict of interest in the cooperative: From the company’s perspective, the GDL acts as both an employer and a union. That is why the railway recently filed a lawsuit against the GDL before the state labor court in Hesse. Weselsky criticized the lawsuit as a “smoke gun” and rejected the accusation. It shows “the desperation of a socially alienated employer who is not afraid of any means, no matter how absurd, to eliminate the strong GDL”.