2023-05-11 09:21:55
AThe next strike at Deutsche Bahn and almost 50 other bus and railway companies is threatening at the beginning of next week. The railway workers’ union EVG will paralyze passenger and freight traffic for two days from Sunday evening from 10 p.m., as announced on Thursday. Rail customers must therefore expect that train traffic in Germany will come to a complete standstill on Monday and Tuesday. This time, the main focus will also be on freight transport. Because of the holiday on Thursday, the cuts are likely to hit companies particularly hard.
This is the third time that the union has called for a warning strike in this wage round. This time, too, she calls the strike “inevitable” because, from the point of view of the EVG, the employers almost without exception had not submitted a negotiable offer. There is little movement at the negotiating table, said EVG collective bargaining board member Cosima Ingenschay. “After three months, the patience of the employees has really run out. The anger is great.” Stronger economic effects are now needed to increase the pressure.
The renewed strike has already become apparent in the past few days, and Deutsche Bahn is responding with a mixture of bewilderment and fatalism. “What else do you have to do to get started with the negotiations?” asked HR Director Martin Seiler at a press conference on Wednesday. Apparently, Deutsche Bahn can offer whatever it wants, but the offer is always rejected.
Most recently, Deutsche Bahn offered wage increases of 10 percent for the lower wage groups and 8 percent for the upper ones. However, the increases should only take effect in two steps from March 2024, before that Deutsche Bahn offers tax-free one-off payments of almost 3000 euros, which are to be paid from June, also in two steps.
However, the EVG insists on a minimum payment of 650 euros per month for everyone. The lower wage groups would benefit disproportionately from such a “social component”. In addition, there must be noticeable increases in the first year, which, unlike the tax-free one-off payments, are reflected directly in the pay table.
Most recently, there was a particular dispute over the question of how around 2,500 employees should be treated, for whom Deutsche Bahn has so far only paid the statutory minimum wage of 12 euros with the help of surcharges. EVG negotiator Kristian Loroch called Deutsche Bahn’s behavior on this issue “very shabby” and unworthy of a federally owned company. It’s about people who cleared away the dirt and ensured security at the train stations.
So far, both sides have only spoken to each other for a few hours in three rounds of negotiations and then broke off the negotiations. Both Bahn and EVG accuse each other of wanting to enforce a “negotiation diktat”.
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