As of: March 7, 2024, 8:34 a.m
By: Hannes Niemeyer
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In the renewed rail strike, the “error in thinking” that GDL boss Weselsky admitted is particularly polarizing.
Now he explains how this came about.
Berlin – And there is another rail strike.
The GDL has once again called for industrial action in Germany.
Work has been stopped in rail traffic since Wednesday evening, and passenger traffic has also been affected since the early hours of Thursday morning.
The campaign is scheduled to last until Friday.
So far, so common, one would think.
In the future, however, the GDL will take tougher measures, as union leader Claus Weselsky announced on Monday.
GDL rail strike: head of the train drivers’ union announces “wave strikes”.
At a press conference, Weselsky announced that in the following GDL rail strikes - which will come as there is still no agreement in sight between the train drivers' union and DB - the work stoppage will no longer be announced so early.
In addition, they no longer want to provide detailed information about the duration of the strikes.
The concept is called “wave strikes”.
However, Weselsky not only caused a stir with his announcement, but also with a subsequent admission.
The GDL boss admitted to the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
that he had made a “misconception”, which he now explained on TV in the ARD Tagesthemen.
In the ARD Tagesthemen Weselsky explained his “error in thinking” about the rail strike.
© Screenshot ARD
GDL rail strike: Weselsky's “error in thinking” causes a stir
Background: The moderators between the two parties to the conflict, former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther, had apparently submitted a proposal for an agreement that was similar to the GDL's demands.
This should include reducing weekly working hours in two stages from the current 38 to 36 hours.
Stage one, the first hour, should come into force from January 2026, the second stage from January 2028. Weselsky, on the other hand, said at the press conference on Monday that the proposal would have envisaged a reduction to just 37 hours, as well as an optional further half-hour reduction .
The DB had contradicted and Weselsky admitted his “error in thinking”, which he now explained again in the ARD’s Tagesthemen.
“I don’t know how many people there are in this country who have never made a mistake,” Weselsky began the interview with moderator Jessy Welmer.
She immediately asks with a laugh whether that was “a real, or perhaps an intentional” mistake in thinking.
Weselsky explains that at the press conference, in response to “a side question from the side,” he did not describe the moderators’ new proposal, but rather “repeated the same thing that the railways had been offering all along.”
On Thursday morning he also made it clear on Deutschlandfunk that he had not lied.
Rail strike is ongoing: Weselsky explains his “error in thinking” and rages against DB board member Seiler
However, Weselsky doesn't dwell on his mistake for long in the ARD Tagesthemen, going straight to railway board member Martin Seiler "and his propaganda department".
Seiler “not once” suggested reducing weekly working hours to more than two hours in the timing described above.
Nevertheless, discussions continued in the background until Wednesday evening.
Seiler never offered to reduce the time by two hours, “as he claims in public,” Weselsky further accuses.
“That’s what I simply call: tricking, deceiving, filling pockets.”
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The railway employees went on strike “because they see that the 35-hour week is feasible,” Weselsky continues to rail against Seiler.
The DB, on the other hand, which “usually boasts about 25,000 hires, stands up and says: That’s not possible.
And that is lies and deception.”
Clear words from the GDL boss, whose error in reasoning has already caused a lot of dust.
Criticism after Weselsky's mistake: Transport Minister Wissing calls for more professionalism
Weselsky also followed up on the ZDF morning magazine on Thursday morning.
He finds it "a bit remarkable" how his mistake is presented, makes it clear that there was "certainly no error in thinking when evaluating the moderators' paper" and that the strike is not because of a mistake.
The railway also uses “skillful PR” to highlight things to the public that “were not offered” to the GDL.
When ZDF presenter Miriam Meinhardt then wants to know whether Weselsky would “strike” if the DB really offered what it said publicly, the GDL boss clearly intervened: “That’s not how tariffs work.”
They had shown a “willingness to compromise”.
However, Deutsche Bahn wants “a compromise from a compromise”.
For example with Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing.
In an interview with the ARD capital studio, the FDP politician said that for him it was “incomprehensible why Mr. Weselsky misunderstood the conciliation paper.”
The paper is by no means ambiguously worded.
“And I have to demand that negotiations take place professionally and responsibly,” Wissing continued.
Wissing showed no understanding whatsoever for the GDL's new wave strike strategy.
(han)