German union to paralyze railways operation in the coming weeks

Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Friday, April 28, 2023

 

BERLIN – Germany’s Railway and Transport Union (EVG) has threatened strikes over several days in its wage dispute with the rail operator, Deutsche Bahn. 

“We could paralyse the railway for weeks,” negotiator Cosima Ingenschay told Friday’s edition of the German broadsheet Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

She said that two previous strikes should have been enough to get a negotiable wage offer from Deutsche Bahn, but they are “obviously not interested in serious negotiations.”

Ingenschay said the next strikes would last longer. “The effects obviously have to be more massive for it to hurt the employer.”

Deutsche Bahn called on the EVG to continue negotiations as soon as possible. “Our employees are waiting for money, our passengers expect solutions,” Deutsche Bahn chief executive Richard Lutz said in Berlin. “We therefore call on the EVG to continue negotiations without delay and not to drag out the collective bargaining round any further.”

He said a solution was possible and urgently needed, and that the EVG’s attitude was “neither sensible nor comprehensible.”

Deutsche Bahn ended the third round of negotiations with the union last Wednesday. The publicly owned company blamed the union’s refusal to negotiate on its new offer for about 180,000 employees.

In addition to an inflationary adjustment free of tax and contributions of €2,850 ($3,144), the offer provided for a gradual increase of 10% for the lower and middle wage groups and 8% or the upper wage groups starting in March of next year.

The union rejected the offer and is demanding at least €650 more per month or 12% for the upper income groups.

The next round of talks is scheduled for the end of May.