The train drivers union (GDL) accepted, on Monday November 26, 2007, to talk with the Deutsche Bahn's management about its new proposition. The GDL mostly wants to make sure that it will get a "separate" collective agreement. Transnet, the large railway union, contests this point, and threatened to strike if the GDL's demands were accepted. The hope might then turn into a general chaos, to the great displeasure of German economy which is trying as hard as possible to limit the impact of the strike on railways freight lines. (Ref. 070973)
While saying that the new wage increase from 8% to 13% offered last week by the DB was “misleading,” Manfred Schell, leader of the GDL, declared that his union was ready to negotiate this offer, at least to show that his organisation is not “obstinate”. After three months of conflict, the GDL’s claim to get a collective agreement which will not only be separate but also independent from those of other DB employees, remains the condition without which no agreement will be signed. “If the DB’s ma
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