GDL boss Claus Weselsky © Sebastian Willnow
The train drivers' union (GDL) will soon enter into collective bargaining – the current collective agreement expires on 31 October. Until then, she wants to create pressure by founding a cooperative.
Munich/Berlin – Another rail tariff conflict: After the EVG, the union of train drivers (GDL) will soon also enter into collective bargaining – the current collective agreement expires on 31 October. Until then, she wants to create pressure by founding a cooperative. A trade union as a personnel service provider – there has never been anything like it before.
The GDL founds a FairTrain eG, a cooperative. The train drivers are to resign from their employers and join the cooperative as members. As a personnel service provider, FairTrain would then virtually lend train drivers to the individual railway companies such as DB Fernverkehr, Regio or Go-Ahead and Transdev by way of temporary employment.
Cooperative creates questioning faces
The cooperative had been prepared as a secret project by the GDL board for months, and it has been founded since June 2. Now, for a share of 500 euros, as many of the 22,000 train drivers as possible are to join the cooperative. "We don't promise a land of milk and honey," GDL boss Claus Weselsky told union members in Berlin on Monday, but "an appreciative approach, a fair approach."
At the trade union congress yesterday in Berlin, there were many questioning faces when the foundation was presented. "We have to digest that first," said one member. Others see the founding of the cooperative as a basis for defending the quite hefty collective bargaining demands in the autumn with clout. The idea: If as many GDL members as possible now become comrades or at least demand a job reference from their employer and thus signal their willingness to change, the pressure increases. "It's going to bang," predicted a GDL member.