Why the transport unions are driving Germany into disarray
What is happening with the transport strikes in Germany and how the Scholz government is moving (and tearing itself apart)
There isn't even time to rearrange agendas after the paralysis in transport which in the second week left train and plane passengers stranded, and Germany finds itself once again in check. Since this morning, Tuesday 12 March, a new 24-hour strike by train drivers belonging to the GDL union is blocking passenger trains in the stations, while the stop to freight convoys began as early as 6pm last night. A strike announced a few hours before, keeping the promise (threat) made in recent days by the union to no longer respect the custom of announcing at least 48 hours in advance.
TRAINS STOPPED AGAIN, THE TWO MAIN AIRPORTS BLOCKED
In addition to rail traffic, the strike also involves many metro lines in large cities, whose S-Bahn network is managed by Deutsche Bahn. The U-Bahn lines (managed by local autonomous companies) remain active, as do the buses and trams, but the blocking of the S-Bahn usually creates great inconvenience in cities such as Berlin or Hamburg.
At the same time, the ver.di union promoted two other protests in the airports. Not in all of them, but in the two main airports in the country: today Tuesday the 12th (therefore at the same time as the train airport) in Frankfurt airport, tomorrow Wednesday the 13th in Munich. This time, the Lufthansa flight attendants stopped, after the ground staff had crossed their arms last week. According to a Lufthansa spokesperson, 120,000 travelers will be involved in the two-day strike in Frankfurt and Munich. The airline expects a total of 1,000 flights to be cancelled, 600 in Frankfurt and 400 in Munich. In the meantime, negotiations between the airline and representatives of the ground staff will resume tomorrow, Wednesday 13 March.
The hottest front, however, remains the railway sector, if only because today's ban has brought us to the sixth abstention from work in the long tug-of-war that has been pitting the GDL union, led by Claus Weselsky, and Deutsche Bahn managers for months now. And why there doesn't seem to be any hint of light at the end of the tunnel.
INCREASINGLY TENSE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DEUTSCHE BAHN AND THE MACHINERY UNION
On the contrary, the confrontation escalates. The railway company presented an urgent appeal to the Frankfurt Labor Court in an attempt to stop the new strike, contesting the new battle format chosen by GDL, i.e. the lack of adequate notice. Especially since the union has threatened to continue on the same path until Deutsche Bahn puts a new proposal on the negotiation table that contains Weselsky's main request: the reduction of working hours from 38 to 35 hours per week under the same conditions tariffs. The union justifies this point (which focuses more on working conditions than on strictly pecuniary aspects) by complaining of an excessive load of fatigue for the train drivers, aggravated by the continuous cuts that have affected the company in recent years.
But Deutsche Bahn had already tried to oppose the train drivers' strike with judicial appeal twice, without however achieving success.
STRIKES IN WAVES AND WITHOUT NOTICE
So Weselsky's new strategy – wave strikes, without warning, capable of disarticulating part of the German economy – has just begun and today's abstention is just a taste of what could happen in the coming weeks. As Easter approaches, with tickets already booked: an inconvenience for family travel, but also for tourism ready to fill up that week. The damage to the economy is already significant, as well as to Deutsche Bahn's coffers, which are not particularly prosperous in this period. For a company forced for a few years to deal with problems of punctuality of service and management of vehicles, it is a bad blow, moreover in the middle of a transition phase which would aim to make the train one of the main instruments of the new ecological mobility.
THE CHALLENGE REMAINS THE REDUCTION OF WORKING HOURS TO 35 HOURS A WEEK
The train drivers say they are the main guarantors of this transition. The union has long had close ties with environmental movements, in particular that of the young people of Fridays for Future. Lately in the streets of Berlin they have demonstrated together, arguing that only good wages and comfortable working conditions for railway workers can make this job attractive, thus overcoming the manpower difficulties that Deutsche Bahn also faces.
On the opposite side, Martin Seiler, personnel director of the railway company, replies that the new strike is unfounded also because Deutsche Bahn has repeatedly underlined that it wants to conclude the negotiations on the basis of an overall proposal which includes a 36-hour working week with a full salary compensation. “Whoever asks for a reduction in working hours from 38 to 35 hours and could get 36 hours in an overall package is not going to paralyze the entire country,” Seiler told the Handelsblatt .
THE DIFFICULTIES OF GOVERNMENT MEDIATION
Now many parties are once again asking for government intervention, which until now was rather reluctant to get involved in the negotiations between the two parties. Two attempts at mediation had actually already been tried in recent months, but without success. Now a different presence is required. For the Pro-Bahn travellers' association, "the State, as owner of the railways, has been far too submissive in this controversy".
But politics tends not to intervene in the controversial tariffs. In Germany there is autonomous collective bargaining: employees and employers regulate wages and working conditions without the direct influence of the federal government. Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently recalled that "the right to resolve industrial disputes is one of the freedoms firmly regulated in our Basic Law".
And to remove any doubt, a government spokesperson reiterated yesterday: “We do not interfere in the autonomy of collective bargaining. This is enshrined in constitutional law and politicians will not interfere with it. At the same time, however, we appeal to the parties involved in collective bargaining to find a solution at the negotiating table."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/scioperi-sindacati-trasporti-germania/ on Tue, 12 Mar 2024 06:46:21 +0000.