Berlin.
Our author fears that Germany will soon come to a standstill. Why the EVG tariff demand on the railways still has its justification.
With such high wage demands as this year, the trade unions have not been involved in their respective collective bargaining for decades. After the postal workers and the employees of the public service, the railway workers are now to push through a double-digit increase in wages and salaries. That may sound excessive and immodest at first, but it isn’t.
Despite a recent respectable average wage development with an increase of more than three percent, workers have become poorer in the past year. The purchasing power of income fell by more than four percent in 2022.
Bahn: The group is under pressure
The reason for this is sharply rising prices at all levels. It is understandable that the trade unions at least want to make up for this loss. Roughly speaking, employers would have to add more than ten percent just to compensate for inflation.
Employers are also under pressure. Every percentage point more wages costs Deutsche Bahn around one hundred million euros. The group has to get over the losses of the pandemic years and invest a lot of money in the modernization of rail transport.
Germany is threatened with standstill
Many municipalities are financially weak and constantly have to finance new tasks. This mixed situation suggests tough collective bargaining disputes in the spring. Sensitive warning strikes are already in full swing at Swiss Post. In the public service, the unions are putting pinpricks at specific points, as will be the case next Thursday in the public service of the federal capital Berlin.
In March or at Easter, the engine drivers might then show that nothing runs on the rails without them. If the unions then agree on joint actions, Germany will stand still. This scenario is not unlikely.
Read here: For 49 euros: when the Germany ticket should finally come
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