2007 German National Rail Strike - Origins of The Strike

Origins of The Strike

German Train Drivers' Union/Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (known by its German initials, GDL) is a relatively small union which represents about 34,000 train drivers in Germany.

In the fall of 2007, the union demanded a 31 percent wage increase from Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned company which operates the German rail system. The wage demand was far higher than the 4.5 percent wage increase won in July by Transnet Gewerkschaft (Transnet) and Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA (GDBA), the railway's two other large unions which together represent about 195,000 workers.

But GDL argued that German locomotive engineers are paid less than their counterparts in other European countries.

Deutsche Bahn rejected the wage demand. The company said that it was committed to the long-standing German trade union practice of bargaining a coordinated contract with all its unions at once to create uniform wage standards. Deutsche Bahn argued that meeting GDL's wage demands would break this pattern and lead to wage demands from other unions.

Deutsche Bahn countered by offering a one-time payment of €2,000 (about $2,934) and a 10 percent wage increase, with a two-hour extension of the work week. But GDL chairman Manfred Schell said the Deutsche Bahn offer was not acceptable as a basis for reopening talks. Deutsche Bahn refused to make another wage offer, and the company's 20-member supervisory board announced that it supported management's decision.

Both sides also engaged in a vitriolic war of words which held out little chance of avoiding a strike. Schell accused Deutsche Bahn of "raping" the country and the union, and declared DB had "provoked" the strike. Deutsche Bahn, in turn, accused GDL of "blackmail" and "madness" and said any strike would be "destructive" and an "economic disaster." Schell denounced the company, declaring, "This is all a theatrical performance by the railway."

Any strike was considered "...a bold gamble by an isolated union." GDL represented a mere 3 percent of Deutsche Bahn's workforce. No other Deutsche Bahn union supported the engineers' strike, nor did the German federation of trade unions, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB). But GDL had a tradition of breaking with other unions in wage negotiations. GDL also believed the time was ripe for a nationwide strike. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government had planned to sell a 49 percent stake in Deutsche Bahn to the public. The union believed it had to seek its wage demands now before the privatization effort began.

GDL engaged in a series of strikes throughout the summer and fall designed to increase pressure on the railway prior to engaging in a nationwide walkout. A short strike occurred in July 2007, and Deutsche Bahn sued the union for €5 million ($7.3 million) in damages. In October and early November 2007, GDL held several short strikes against local commuter lines, stopping work for a total of 65 hours. On November 10, 2007, the union held a 42-hour strike which stopped about 90 percent of all freight trains in the country. Deutsche Bahn estimated the November 10 freight strike cost €50 million ($73 million) each day.

Public sector workers in Germany have a severely restricted right to strike. Deutsche Bahn had previously won a court ruling limiting any strike to local service. But in early November 2007, the GDL union won the right to strike freight and long-distance trains as well.