Merger creates new rail and transport trade union

In November 2010, two trade unions in the German rail and transport sector, TRANSNET and Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA, merged to form the new Rail and Transport Union (EVG), representing about 250,000 members. This is the first time that unions affiliated to different union federations have merged. The new union will be affiliated to the Confederation of German Trade Unions. The two unions first collaborated in 2005 to establish a collective bargaining association.

On 30 November 2010, the largest union in the German railway industry, TRANSNET, merged with the smaller transport trade union, Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA, to form a new union, the Rail and Transport Union (EVG). On 1 December 2010, the new trade union had about 250,000 members.

The merger is unique because TRANSNET was affiliated to the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) whereas Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA was an affiliate of the German Civil Service Association (dbb). The new union, EVG, will be affiliated to DGB at the national level and to the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) at the European and international levels. TRANSNET entered the merger with around 220,000 members whereas the smaller Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA had about 30,000 members. About half of the new union’s members are pensioners.

This merger reduces the number of trade unions in the German rail and transport sector to three. The German Engine Drivers’ Union (GDL) predominantly organises engine drivers, is affiliated to dbb and has about 34,000 members. The United Services Union (ver.di) is affiliated to DGB and has some organisational units which partly overlap with the new EVG union in private rail companies outside German Rail (Deutsche Bahn) and in bus and coach transport.

Background

The merger between TRANSNET and Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA comes after years of close cooperation.

In 2004, delegates at TRANSNET’s annual congress endorsed cooperation with Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA with an eventual merger in mind. In 2005, although they belonged to two different union confederations, the two unions established a formal collective bargaining association. In 2009, delegates to the Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA’s congress agreed to negotiate a merger, and this was successfully concluded in November 2010. Both unions have their historical roots in the state-owned Federal Rail Service, as does GDL.

In 1994, the Federal Rail Service was turned into a private company, and this was followed by the rail transport market being opened up to private competitors. Successive restructuring programmes have led to job cuts and the outsourcing of operations. Before 1994, many railway and transport employees had the status of career civil servants whose pay and working conditions were set by law. Post-privatisation, the unions were faced with unprecedented challenges for the collective bargaining process.

While TRANSNET and Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA put aside any difficulties caused by their differing union federation affiliations to join forces, there were growing tensions between them and GDL. These came to the fore for the first time in the 2003 bargaining round (DE0304201N) and escalated in 2007 (DE0804049I) when GDL insisted on independent negotiations and called for industrial action to support its claim to a separate collective agreement for engine drivers.

There were also tensions between TRANSNET and ver.di, the multi-service trade union that also claimed to be a transport union. Tensions were related to re-drawing the boundaries between their overlapping territories in the freight and bus sector, and thus the unions entered into a conciliation process under the jurisdiction of DGB.

Reactions

In a press release (in German), the Chair of DGB, Michael Sommer, congratulated both unions on their ‘historic step’. He said the merger would strengthen the principles of industrial unionism and joint collective bargaining. The Chair of ver.di, Frank Bsirske, stressed that his union would be looking forward to cooperating with the new union. Given the tensions between GDL and the two former unions, TRANSNET and GDBA, the Chair of GDL, Claus Weselsky, has rejected the idea of joining the new union and emphasised that organisational independence would serve GDL’s members better.

Heiner Dribbusch, Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI)