Is justice allowed to massively get involved in a wage conflict ? By allowing train drivers to come out on strike at the regional and at the local level, but not at the level of long-distance and cargo trains, in a judgement rendered during the night from October 4 to October 5, 2007, the Chemnitz Labour Court caused German unions' anger and sparked off vivid controversy on courts' role in collective conflicts. (Ref. 070828)
On Monday, October 1, the small train drivers’ union (GDL), which has been requiring for months a 31% wage increase and a special tariff agreement for its members (see our articles No. 070802 and 070700), announced a three-hour strike from 8 to 11 am on Friday October 5. The Deutsche Bahn (DB) had submitted the case to the Chemnitz court which had acted in extremis right before the strike started. “Judges recognized that the strike was a legitimate action but that, in this case, it transgressed
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