The state-owned company and the union fought for months.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The train drivers’ union GDL and Deutsche Bahn have apparently resolved their deadlocked collective bargaining dispute and reached an agreement. This is reported by the Reuters news agency. The states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein were also the last to act as intermediaries. First, the “Bild” newspaper reported on the agreement.
The union and the railway declined to comment, but want to comment on it at a joint press conference in Berlin. The Prime Ministers of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Stephan Weil (SPD) and Daniel Günther (CDU), also take part in the press conference.
In the past few days, “intensive talks have taken place in order to find common solutions in the collective bargaining round between Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) and the union of German locomotive drivers (GDL) in the interests of passengers and employees”.
The former train arbitrator Bodo Ramelow already expressed himself via Twitter: “The results will be available at 10:30 am and two colleagues of mine did a really good job.”
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At the weekend, the railway presented the union with an extended offer that the GDL has not yet rejected. The competing railway and transport union (EVG) said they expected negotiations between both sides and a collective bargaining agreement in a few days.
The railway announced on Saturday that it would take a big step towards the employees’ side with an additional “remuneration component”. She did not publish details. The GDL only announced that it would examine the offer and confirmed that it would inform about further steps “in due course”.
Union demands
The GDL calls for 3.2 percent more wages with a term of the collective agreement of 28 months and a corona premium of 600 euros. The railway wants to extend the tariff increase over a longer period of time and offers a term of 36 months. It also offers a corona premium of 600 or 400 euros, depending on the wage group.
The remuneration component should also be paid. The company did not disclose how much it should be or how it should be paid. So far, the GDL had struck three times in this collective bargaining round and met both commuters and holidaymakers in the process. There were also disabilities in freight transport.
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