New standstill on the rails: The railway and transport union wants to announce the next warning strike dates on Thursday. An agreement in the current tariff conflict is a long way off.
In the coming days, there is a risk of train cancellations and long delays nationwide due to another warning strike. The railway and transport union wants to paralyze rail traffic again and thus increase the pressure on employers in the ongoing wage conflict. The EVG has been negotiating new collective agreements with 50 railway companies since the end of February – but so far the talks have not been going well from the union’s point of view.
Deutsche Bahn emphasized that in a “letter announced in advance” it had taken a big step towards the union on a central point. In this context, the warning strike announcement was “completely exaggerated and completely disproportionate”.
The EVG has not yet revealed when the employees will be called to stop work. On the other hand, it is certain that there will be another warning strike on the railways – the union described a work stoppage as “unavoidable”. The exact period is to be announced at a press conference on Thursday (9:00 a.m.).
“Unfortunately, it can be seen that little is happening at the negotiating table,” the union said. A possible collective bargaining agreement is still “a long way off”.
The EVG is currently negotiating for around 230,000 employees. The focus is on Deutsche Bahn – 180,000 of the 230,000 employees work for the state-owned group. The three rounds of talks with DB so far have been reportedly without any decisive rapprochement – there have already been two warning strikes on the rails in the past few weeks and months, with which the EVG has largely brought regional and long-distance traffic to a standstill. Most recently, the EVG was limited to a few hours in the morning and in the morning.
Agreement on the minimum wage?
In talks with the industry, the union is calling for at least 650 euros more per month or 12 percent for upper income earners over a twelve-month period. Before that, she wants to have clarified crucial questions about the minimum wage in the negotiations with the railways. Around 2,000 employees at DB have so far only received this through allowances because the minimum wage has risen faster than the tariff tables in recent years. The EVG would like to include the statutory minimum wage of 12 euros in the tables before negotiating further tariff increases.
So far, DB has refused – at least until Tuesday. In a letter, she has now fulfilled the requirement, the railway said. She suggested “that the statutory minimum wage of 12 euros be included in all pay tables with effect from March 1, 2023”. The wage increase offered has an additional effect on the employees concerned. “DB has also offered to stipulate in a collective agreement that DB employees will always earn 5 percent more than the statutory minimum wage even if there are future adjustments.”
The basic offer from Deutsche Bahn includes a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment totaling 2,850 euros, which is to be paid out over several months. From March next year, a wage increase of a total of 10 percent for the lower and middle wage groups and 8 percent for the upper wage groups could then follow in stages, the proposed term is 27 months. However, the EVG rejected this offer at the end of April as being non-negotiable.
“We could paralyze the railway for weeks”
Accordingly, the signs are now pointing to a warning strike, train cancellations and frustration among commuters and travelers. EVG board member Cosima Ingenschay had recently indicated that further warning strike actions could last longer than the two strikes in March (24 hours) and April (eight hours): “We could paralyze the railway for weeks,” she said at the end of April. Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Tuesday’s announcement and the planned press conference on Thursday indicate that the warning strike is planned before the next round of negotiations at the end of May.
The EVG represents employees at Deutsche Bahn in almost all areas of work and can therefore quickly hit the company with a warning strike. If, for example, dispatchers go on warning strike, entire sections of the route can no longer be used.
Source: Stern
