The train drivers' strike in Germany 2007–2008: warnings for the future of the German trade union movement? |
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| Authors: | Jürgen Hoffmann Rudi Schmidt |
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| Institution: | 1. Department for Social, Economic Sciences and Business at the University of Hamburg;2. Schiller University of Jena |
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| Abstract: | The authors review the strike that took place during 2007–08 that was called by the oldest existing German trade union, the professional union of train drivers Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokführer (GDL). In so doing, the outcome of the strike is analysed, together with the dynamics of relationship between the GDL, the industrial union TRANSNET, the Gewerkschaft der Bahnbeamten und Anwärter (DBDA), the union of the civil servants employed by the German railway, and the railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB AG). These relationships are examined as paradigmatic of politics of a particularistic organisation like GDL and for politics of an encompassing organisation like TRANSNET. These relationships raise the question: would the growth of professional unions in Germany lead to an erosion of the German system of industrial relations, which currently is still relatively stable due to the predominance of encompassing industrial unions? |
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