(Bloomberg News circulated the following story by Chad Thomas on November 19.)
Deutsche Bahn AG, Germany’s state- owned railway, will make a new contract offer to train drivers today to help avoid new strikes, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said.
“I am very happy that Deutsche Bahn has decided to make some movement here,” Tiefensee said in an interview on German N24 television. “I am cautiously optimistic that they could start formal negotiations tomorrow or the next day.”
Deutsche Bahn Chief Executive Officer Hartmut Mehdorn and Manfred Schell, the GDL union’s leader, are meeting this morning to discuss the ongoing labor dispute. The union said yesterday it will decide after the meeting whether to hold new walkouts.
Train drivers stopped work for three days last week, the longest German train strike since at least Deutsche Bahn’s 1994 founding, and have threatened an indefinite walkout as the stalemate drags into its fifth month.
The union is seeking a contract separate from one reached with the railway’s two other labor groups, while Deutsche Bahn says any agreement must be “within the framework” of that agreement. The GDL has rejected the railway’s latest contract offer, which includes a one-time payment of 2,000 euros ($2,920) and a 10 percent raise.
Deutsche Bahn wants train drivers to put in an additional two hours per week to get the 10 percent increase. The railway agreed on July 9 to give the 134,000 members of the Transnet and GDBA unions a 4.5 percent pay rise and a one-time payment of 600 euros.