(The following report by Bertrand Benoit appeared on the Financial Times website on August 6.)
BERLIN — Germany’s national railway operator is steeling itself for its toughest industrial action for 15 years after members of a rebel engine drivers’ union voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favour of open-ended strike action.
Deutsche Bahn says it has rejected an ultimatum by the GDL union for the company to come up with a new pay offer by Tuesday night. The union wants a 31 per cent rise for its 13,000 members.
Germany now appears poised for its worst transport chaos since the last nationwide strike in 1992. The GDL said it would begin its strike on Thursday by hitting freight traffic.
The soon-to-be privatised operator said a full-scale labour dispute involving passenger trains would cost it more than €10m ($13.8m, £6.8m) a day and put the daily cost for the German economy at €500m. Economists, meanwhile, worry that a generous settlement could fuel wage inflation.
“People are cancelling their trips from Wednesday onwards. The strike has not even started and we are already facing costs in the region of €1m a day,” said a DB executive who asked not to be named.
“The employer has chosen confrontation and is deluging us with lawsuits,” Manfred Schell, the union’s chairman, told reporters after unveiling the ballot result, showing 95.8 per cent of members backing a strike. “It is turning against its own employees.” Mr Schell said the GDL was likely to begin its strike with targeted stoppages concentrating on freight transport.
By breaking ranks with DB’s two leading unions – which last month secured a 4.5 per cent pay rise from January and a one-off €600 payment for this year – and adopting an unusually aggressive stance, the GDL is rewriting the rules of wage negotiations at large German companies.
However, DB is optimistic that it can withstand an all-out strike because of the GDL’s small size.
The company insisted on Monday that it would not grant GDL members a separate wage deal. While business, passenger associations and the government have called for talks to resume, the company has been honing a legal and logistical battle plan.
Executives said DB would make full use of Germany’s complex labour legislation. This could include various measures to declare strikes illegal – for instance, in areas where the union has omitted to cancel old local wage agreements.
On the logistical side, the company aims to have 80 per cent of long-distance and half of regional trains running. DB has also begun refresher courses for former drivers and licence-holders who currently have desk jobs. About 40 per cent of drivers, and only 13,000 out of DB’s 240,000 employees, are GDL members.