The railways have been negotiating tariffs for months, and commuters and travelers are always concerned about new warning strikes. The negotiators will again take a lot of their time on Friday.
In the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Bahn, a solution was negotiated for hours for the fifth day in a row. Late on Friday afternoon, it was still unclear how and when the marathon of negotiations that had been going on since Monday could end.
This also left open whether the passengers might face another warning strike. Representatives of the group and the railway and transport union EVG did not comment on the current state of affairs. Both sides had given themselves until Friday for this round of negotiations. It also seemed possible to extend the talks to Saturday or Sunday.
In the end, it should be about the pay increases and the term of the collective agreement – the core of the negotiations. In an interim report on Wednesday, the union emphasized that there was a lot of potential for conflict.
The EVG has so far largely paralyzed rail traffic twice in the collective bargaining round with warning strikes. A planned 50-hour strike in May was canceled at short notice after a legal dispute at the labor court in Frankfurt am Main.
What the EVG demands and the DB offers
The EVG wants to achieve a fixed salary increase of at least 650 euros per month or twelve percent more for the upper wage groups for a good 180,000 employees at Deutsche Bahn (DB). According to their ideas, the term should be twelve months.
Deutsche Bahn had recently promised twelve percent more in several stages for the lower wage groups over a period of 24 months. The middle groups should get a total of ten percent more and the upper groups eight percent. The first stage of the increase should therefore be due this year. In addition, there is an inflation compensation premium in several payments totaling 2850 euros, which is tax and duty-free.
How the talks could end now
According to both sides, the negotiations were intensive and constructive until Wednesday. However, it is conceivable that on Friday the EVG will threaten or immediately call for a warning strike because of the large differences in terms of duration and fee increase. In this way, the union could try to persuade the employers to make a better offer. Depending on the duration of the labor dispute, the railways should definitely take such an action. During the two warning strikes in March and April, not only long-distance traffic came to a standstill, freight traffic also came to a virtual standstill – which is associated with high costs.
Should the EVG even declare the negotiations to have failed, a strike vote could then follow for an indefinite period. However, that would mean a significant escalation of the conflict.
Alternatively, both sides could agree on an extension of the current round or look for a new date in the next few days – possibly with a cancellation of work stoppages until such a date. Or: EVG and Bahn present an agreement and end the tariff conflict that has been going on since the end of February. DB HR Director Martin Seiler emphasized on Wednesday that this must be the common goal.
How the negotiations went until Wednesday
Before the wage increases and the term of the collective agreement, the bus companies of Deutsche Bahn, the freight subsidiary DB Cargo and the internal service providers of the state-owned group were on the agenda. For example, the EVG wants to abolish the regional differences in pay for the employees of the 18 bus companies. Deutsche Bahn worries about the profitability and competitiveness of these companies with higher personnel costs. For example, DB Cargo made a loss before interest and taxes of 665 million euros in 2022.
Source: Stern
