Germany: GDL train drivers’ union threatens with a strike in February to defend its status of negotiator

GDL says this is an insult to train drivers.  After “the longest conflict in the rail industry,” the small train drivers’ union, GDL (34,000 members) obtained, in March 2008, the right to sign special collective agreements for train drivers (see our dispatch No.  080196). However, this latest development shows how precarious its status of negotiator still is.  According to GDL, the six private operators (Abellio, Arriva Deutschland, BeNEX, Keolis Deutschland, Veolia Verkehr and the Hessische Landesbahn’s companies) broke, on the night of Thursday, January 20th, their promise to sign a federal framework agreement for all train drivers (Bundes-Rahmen-Lokomotivführertarifvertrag – BuRA-LftV, see our dispatch No.  100648).  “This is an insult to all train drivers who patiently hoped, for the last six months, that wage dumping practices would end in German rail transport” denounced GDL leader Claus Weselsky.
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lopment shows how precarious its status of negotiator still is. According to GDL, the six private operators (Abellio, Arriva Deutschland, BeNEX, Keolis Deutschland, Veolia Verkehr and the Hessische Landesbahn’s companies) broke, on the night of Thursday, January 20th, their promise to sign a federal framework agreement for all train drivers (Bundes-Rahmen-Lokomotivführertarifvertrag – BuRA-LftV, see our dispatch No. 100648). “This is an insult to all train drivers who patiently hoped, for th

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