The call of the German Locomotive Union to hold new strikes

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting Astern Weekly, the German train drivers’ union GDL has announced more strikes during the collective bargaining dispute with Deutsche Bahn (German railway company), which will start on Tuesday morning.

Thus, the GDL train drivers’ union has called for a new strike in the collective bargaining dispute with Deutsche Bahn (DB). According to the announcement of this union on Sunday evening, the strike in passenger transport (intercity and regional transport) is scheduled to start at 2 am on Tuesday and continue until 2 am on Wednesday. In freight transportation, the work stoppage starts at 18:00 on Monday evening and lasts 24 hours.

This means that between the announcement for this protest action and the start It’s just over 24 hours away. The head of the union, Klaus Weselski, has already announced that in the future it will give railways and passengers less time to prepare for strikes.

German Railways It had not provided a solution by the deadline set by the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union at 18:00 Sunday evening to submit a new written proposal. GDL boss Klaus Weselski said it would “inevitably lead to a strike”, leaving the rail company to blame for what is now the sixth strike in this round of collective bargaining.

Shortly before the end of the deadline set by this union, Deutsche Bahn invited GDL again for new negotiations to resolve the impasse. The human resources manager of this company explained in Berlin: “We are of the opinion that we can reach an agreement only through discussion at the negotiating table.” The current round of collective negotiations has started a strike; The fifth strike, which lasted 35 hours, only ended on Friday afternoon. Another round of negotiations had already failed last week.

The German railway company then asked GDL to resume negotiations based on the regulator’s proposal. But the union rejected this proposal and described it as unacceptable. The main demand of the GDL in the collective bargaining dispute with the railways is the gradual introduction of a 35-hour week with full wage compensation. It continues and inevitably forced GDL to continue the dispute, much to the dismay of DB’s customers. The GDL agreement proposals have been on the central bank’s desk since January 23, 2024, and the board has no choice but to refuse to act, the statement said. Instead of presenting a written proposal and finding workable solutions with GDL within the framework of collective bargaining, the public relations campaign acted as if GDL was unwilling to compromise.

Now due to the limited supply in the shadow of these upcoming strikes, DB advised passengers to book their seats early when traveling on long-distance trains. There will definitely be extensive restrictions on regional transportation. In general, DB wants passengers to know their connection before starting the trip. Is. German Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing criticized Sunday evening that the strike was irresponsible instead of negotiations. He emphasized: GDL should talk and review the compromise. A formal arbitration procedure should be initiated immediately.

Deutsche Bahn has also strongly criticized the short-term announcement of warning strikes. GDL must give 48 hours notice of its threat to announce strikes, the company said in Berlin on Sunday evening. This is an absolute burden on millions of rail passengers and the economy. The German Railway Company announced: This strike will once again have a huge impact on all German rail operations.

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