Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUKLN73597220090123?sp=true

UPDATE 1-German rail union threatens strikes from next week
Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:06pm GMT Email | Print | Share | Single Page
(Adds comment from GDL union chief, Lufthansa negotiator)

FRANKFURT, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Strikes could begin hitting German railways next week if national rail operator Deutsche Bahn does not improve its latest pay offer, rail workers' union Transnet said on Friday.

Transnet, the biggest of three unions representing Deutsche Bahn's 130,000 workers, said if the company did not make its staff a more attractive deal when negotiations recommenced on Wednesday, it would call for temporary stoppages.

"If Deutsche Bahn does not make big concessions, we'll strike," Transnet boss Alexander Kirchner told hr-Info radio.

Talks between Deutsche Bahn and union representatives this week have failed so far. The GDL train drivers' union, which brought much German rail traffic to a standstill during strikes in 2007, said it would not strike before February.

GDL is seeking a 6.5 percent raise for some 12,000 drivers, while unions Transnet and GDBA want a 10 percent hike.

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/grossman121008.html

12/10/08

How the Crisis Saved the German Railroads
by Victor Grossman
The rolling stock of the German railroads, due to be peddled off to the highest stock market bidders on October 27th, has been saved, at least temporarily, and is still nationally owned. That seems to be the one possible bit of good news in the present economic crisis. All the rest is bad.

The railroad system has been run in recent years by a kind of transportation czar, Helmut Mehdorn, 66, perhaps the least popular figure in German politics. On the one hand he has been constantly raising fares, twice this year alone. On the other hand, while modernizing the main lines for quick, comfortable transportation between Germany's major cities, he has been mercilessly cutting secondary rail networks between smaller cities and towns, dooming endless kilometers of track to rust and weeds, selling off or abandoning numerous stations and cutting service to all but the diminishing number of "quality" customers.

Then, too, he has been decimating the ranks of railroad employees, laying off 90,000, almost one-third -- sometimes, it is charged, at the expense of safety. Last year, he fought an arrogantly stubborn battle for eleven months against the small but militant locomotive engineers union. The larger railroad union, which kept out of the fight for the most part, was betrayed by its president, who finally showed his true colors by quitting his job and getting a well-paid leadership position in the railroad company, whose privatization he had also supported.

Strike action hits German flights
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7493123.stm
Page last updated at 10:50 GMT, Monday, 7 July 2008 11:50 UK
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Strike action hits German flights

Lufthansa warned that further flights could be cancelled throughout the day
More than 200 flights in Germany and Europe have been cancelled by strike action at Lufthansa's regional carriers CityLine and Eurowings.
Members of the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union walked out at 2200 GMT on Sunday in a 24-hour strike over pay.
Flights from all major German airports, especially the hubs at Frankfurt and Munich, have been affected.
It comes less than a week after flights were hit by a strike by staff such as baggage handlers and check-in workers.
Lufthansa urged passengers to call before heading to the airport and consider alternative means of transport.
"We find it very unfortunate that passengers are bearing the brunt of this," a Lufthansa spokesperson said.
The airline warned that further flights could be cancelled throughout the day.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/berl-m17.shtml

Berlin transport workers vote on contract

How should workers proceed?

By Ulrich Rippert
17 May 2008

Following eight weeks of industrial action, including strikes, opposition is growing amongst workers employed by the Berlin Transport Authority (BVG) as the real content emerges of the deal stuck by their trade union, Verdi, at the beginning of the month.

Many workers have already made clear that they will vote “No” on the contract in the ballot scheduled for this Monday. At the same time, there are widespread fears that the Verdi bureaucracy will win the necessary 25 percent of “Yes” votes that would usher in yet another round of declining wages and worsening working conditions.

At meetings held at depots and transport departments, Verdi functionaries have tried to persuade workers to accept the deal by placing the contract in the most favourable light. Nevertheless, all their juggling with numbers cannot hide the fact that the so-called average wage increase of 4.6 percent is a sham, or, more precisely, a deliberate deception.

The vast majority of workers with high seniority will get just 60 euros extra per month starting in August. Based on an average gross income of 2,400 euros, this amounts to a mere 2.5 percent. If one includes the 500-euro lump-sum payment for the months January to July, one arrives at an average wage increase of approximately 2.7 percent for the current year. An additional 1 percent has been agreed to for next year—but only to start in August (i.e., the increase will be 0.4 percent in 2009). Over a two-year period, this means that workers will receive a wage increase of less than 1.6 per cent.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/berl-m17.shtml

Berlin transport workers vote on contract

How should workers proceed?

By Ulrich Rippert
17 May 2008

Following eight weeks of industrial action, including strikes, opposition is growing amongst workers employed by the Berlin Transport Authority (BVG) as the real content emerges of the deal stuck by their trade union, Verdi, at the beginning of the month.

Many workers have already made clear that they will vote “No” on the contract in the ballot scheduled for this Monday. At the same time, there are widespread fears that the Verdi bureaucracy will win the necessary 25 percent of “Yes” votes that would usher in yet another round of declining wages and worsening working conditions.

At meetings held at depots and transport departments, Verdi functionaries have tried to persuade workers to accept the deal by placing the contract in the most favourable light. Nevertheless, all their juggling with numbers cannot hide the fact that the so-called average wage increase of 4.6 percent is a sham, or, more precisely, a deliberate deception.

The vast majority of workers with high seniority will get just 60 euros extra per month starting in August. Based on an average gross income of 2,400 euros, this amounts to a mere 2.5 percent. If one includes the 500-euro lump-sum payment for the months January to July, one arrives at an average wage increase of approximately 2.7 percent for the current year. An additional 1 percent has been agreed to for next year—but only to start in August (i.e., the increase will be 0.4 percent in 2009). Over a two-year period, this means that workers will receive a wage increase of less than 1.6 per cent.

By Dietmar Henning and Anna Rombach, 6 December 2007 - World Socialist Website

The current conflict between train drivers and the German Railways (Deutsche Bahn—DB) is taking place against the background of the planned privatisaation of the German railway system. This accounts for the determination and obstinacy on the part of the DB management led by Hartmut Mehdorn, which has rejected any concessions to the train drivers.

The aim of the privatisation is to transform a national service built up over decades with taxpayers’ money into a globally operating logistics enterprise and a lucrative asset for private investors. Such a step presupposes low levels of wages and social conditions. The high levels of profits expected by the private investors can be only be achieved at the expense of the workforce and the quality of a service that, up until now, has been carried out by the railways as a public service.

In this respect, the strike by train drivers comes at a very inopportune moment. To launch German Railways on the stock market, it is necessary to demonstrate to investors that it has an obedient and submissive workforce.

German rail strikes brought rail transportation to a halt in many areas of the country earlier this month and revealed the enormous frustration and discontent that has accumulated over the past years. The power of the working class was felt when locomotive engineers, signal box workers and others in key positions proved that they could paralyse Deutsche Bahn (DB), Germany´s still state-owned railway company. In the railway stations most passengers affected by the stoppages that caused long delays and chain reactions for several hours showed sympathy towards the strikers. An opinion poll revealed that 71 per cent of all Germans supported the strikes.

The determination was overwhelming. Wherever union pickets turned up and called upon the railway employees to come out, the response was impressive, as though many workers had been waiting for such a call for a long time. This is not surprising as railway workers have suffered losses in living standards over the past few years.

DB boss Hartmut Mehdorn has been pressing for a privatization for a long time and keeps urging politicians to take a final decision to sell up to 49% of DB shares on the stock exchange in an initial public offering (IPO). DB management have done their utmost to squeeze the workforce and create an economic balance sheet with record profits in order to prove that DB is "marketable" and "fit for the stock exchange". Yet cutbacks in staff and investment have made working life even more difficult. For example, they have reduced the staff and rolling stock in the freight section, Railion, to the extent that they cannot even cope with the present increasing demand for rail transportation and have to tell potential customers that they should rather go for road transportation.