Dr. Viktoria Kalass

Apparent conflict between trade unions at Deutsche Bahn AG. Evolution of a craft organization to a discrete trade union. The example of Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL)

The dissertation aims at explaining the transformation of "Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL)" (trade union of German locomotive engine drivers) which managed to establish itself as an independent trade union in the aftermath of a spectacular collective bargaining success in 2008. The related strike of locomotive engine drivers was frequently mentioned in the German media and it also gave rise to a continuing debate about new forms of competition and conflict between trade unions, its sources, reasons and consequences for the German Model of industrial relations between political scientists, sociologists and industrial lawyers. The analysis is based on political science but still reflects the historical context as well as organizationally and culturally oriented sociological aspects. The central thesis assumes a fundamental change of the GDL and depicts its development from a powerless craft organization without substantial influence in employment relations to a powerful, self-consciously acting trade union.

The reasons and explanations for the GDL's will to break up with long-lived, established bargaining traditions are numerous. The transformation process itself is ridden with prerequisites. A substantial amount of the transformation can be explained by considering environmental changes which can be summarized under the terms of "Deutsche Einheit" (German Unity) and "Bahnreform" (structural reform of the German railway system). Both have changed the German railway sector radically and thus forcing employers as well as employee organizations to find answers to these structural changes. Competition and shareholder value-orientation influenced the organization of work. Jobs were cut while the whole process of work was modified. The disintegration of the formerly state-owned German railway company Deutsche Bahn out of the public sector promoted a new definition of work and especially of professional status of employees in this sector. This especially concerned the locomotive engine drivers. Contents and the tenure of job training were reduced since locomotive engine drivers no longer obtained the status of civil servants whereas skill requirements of engine drivers were cut with reference to technological progress. Meanwhile many locomotive engine drivers recall these changes as degrading about which the GDL constantly keeps complaining in collective settings.

At the same time the GDL managed to organize new members who are allowed to engage in protest. Engine drivers possess structural power since their professional performance is essential for the maintenance of the transportation process. Nevertheless, the GDL was unable to exert a veto because as civil servants, locomotive engine drivers traditionally were not given the right to strike. This situation changed due to organizational success of the GDL in Eastern Germany after November 1989, especially since Eastern German engine drivers were not employed as civil servants and therefore able to strike. After the beginning of Bahnreform new employees as well as East German engine drivers were allowed to strike and the GDL gained factual veto power. During the dispute in collective bargaining in 2007/08 at Deutsche Bahn AG the GDL was able to mobilise its veto power and to realise discrete bargaining demands. This was possible since the GDL established a connection between membership and organizational interests. Whereas the GDL leadership was primarily interested in organizational survival and independence, the engine drivers asked for improvements in work condition and payment. The claim of a surplus of 30% symbolically illustrates the attentiveness that the GDL leadership displayed towards member interest (logic of membership).

The tactical combination between logic of influence and logic of membership backed the GDL leadership following top-down oriented strategy to institutionalise organizational independence with the required membership support. On this basis the GDL succeeded in executing its transformation from a craft organization to a discrete trade union. But since the transformation process was ridden with prerequisites the often announced fear of employers and industrial unions concerning a profound erosion of the German Model seems unlikely.

The dissertation examines the transformation of the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL), which was able to establish itself as an independent trade union actor in industrial relations thanks to its spectacularly staged collective bargaining success in 2008. The GDL can be seen as one of the most prominent protagonists in the ongoing debate about the causes, conditions and consequences of sectoral trade union competition, in which political scientists, sociologists and labor law experts are involved alongside the players in the field. This study analyzes the phenomenon from a political science perspective. Historical references as well as organizational sociological and cultural sociological contexts are taken into account. The basic thesis is that the GDL has undergone a comprehensive transformation in recent years and has developed from a professional and trade association with little power to act into an offensive, self-confident, veto-wielding trade union of German locomotive drivers.

The background and conditions for the GDL's transformation are manifold. The transformation itself proved to be extremely preconditional. A large part of the change is due to environmental changes. These contextual changes can be subsumed under the concepts of German unification and railroad reform. Both processes have permanently changed the rail landscape and had to be dealt with by both employees and employers. Competition and profit-oriented management had an impact on the labor factor, induced a shortage of personnel resources, modified work processes and, with the abolition of the civil service, made it necessary to redefine individual job profiles. Train drivers were also affected. The abolition of the civil service and the associated removal of career-logical elements that were previously integrated into train driver training and technical innovations that rendered many train driver-specific specialist skills superfluous made it necessary to amend the job profile. It is clear that the redefinition of their profession is experienced by many train drivers as a devaluation, which the GDL complains about on a collective level.

At the same time, the GDL has gained in membership strength and the ability to strike as a result of German unification. Train drivers generally have a high level of structural power, which is fed by the non-substitutability of their profession for the maintenance of operations. Until the rail reform, however, the GDL was unable to use this veto power because it lacked members capable of striking. This changed in the course of German unification with the GDL's organizational successes in East Germany. With the expiry of the civil servant career path, the train drivers gained strike power and the GDL gained veto power. In the course of the DB collective bargaining dispute in 2007/08, the GDL was able to effectively mobilize the veto power it had gained and file independent claims for representation. This was achieved with the help of a close link between the interests of members and influence. While the association's leadership was primarily concerned with independence and ultimately securing its organizational existence, the members' focus was on income and working conditions. With the demand for a 30% increase, the GDL leadership put the interests of its members in a nutshell.

The cleverly chosen combination of members' and officials' interests secured the GDL the necessary support among its own members in its top-down striving for trade union political self-sufficiency in order to successfully complete the transformation from a professional association to a trade union. The preconditional nature of the transformation process, however, speaks against the fears often expressed by employers and industry trade unions of the widespread unionization of professional associations.

"New trade union competition at Deutsche Bahn AG. From the transformation of a professional and trade association to the professional union of German locomotive drivers (GDL)"

The dissertation was published by Springer Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften in 2012:
Kalass, Viktoria (2012): New trade union competition in the rail sector. Konflikt um die Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer, Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Link to the publication

Viktoria Kalass has been working for Deutsche Bahn AG as a consultant in the Employment Conditions and Social Policy department since April 2012.

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Alongside my studies, I have been working as a student assistant at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (Cologne) since January 2005. It was during this time that I first became intensively involved with labor relations. For my then boss Dr. Britta Rehder, I reconstructed various labor disputes in German companies in the period 2000-2003 on the basis of press coverage. These included the 2002/03 wage dispute at Deutsche Bahn AG. In the course of my research on this wage dispute, I became aware of the cultural differences between the rail unions involved in the conflict. As a "child of the railroads", I was born with a fundamental interest in railway-specific contexts.

During the final phase of my studies, I became aware of the GDL train drivers' strike in 2007 and it was immediately clear to me that this was my subject. I was quickly able to get Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder interested in the topic. I moved from Cologne to the University of Kassel, where I worked as a research assistant for two years. In this role, I was able to conduct a large number of interviews with relevant players in labor relations in the rail sector, both on the employer and trade union side.

In publication

• (Together with Friedhelm Boll): Streik und Aussperrung, in: Schroeder, Wolfgang/Weßels, Bernhard (eds.): Die Gewerkschaften in Politik und Gesellschaft der Bundesrepublik. A handbook, updated edition.

2012

• Review Christian Brütt: Workfare as minimum security. Von der Sozialhilfe zu Hartz IV. deutsche Sozialpolitik von 1962 bis 2005 (Gesellschaft der Unterschiede, Bd. I), Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, in: Archiv für Sozialforschung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, at: www.fes.de/cgi-bin/afs.cgi.
• New trade union competition in the rail sector. Konflikt um die Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

2011

• (Together with Samuel Greef): Les relations sociales á la Deutsche Bahn: nouveaux acteurs et évolution des rapports de force sur fond de privatisation et de libération, in: Hazouard, Solène/Lasserre, René/Uterwedde, Henrik (eds.): Relations sociales dans les services d'interêt général. Une comparaison France-Allemagne, Cergy-Pontoise Cedex: Cirac, 85-105.
• (Together with Wolfgang Schroeder and Samuel Greef): Berufsgewerkschaften in der Offensive. On the transformation of the German trade union model, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
• Association Competition and Collective Bargaining Plurality: New Power Relations in Labor Relations in the Railway Industry?, in: Andresen, Knud/Bitzegeio, Ursula/Mittag, Jürgen (eds.): "Nach dem Strukturbruch"? Continuity and change in industrial relations and the world(s) of work since the 1970s, Bonn: Dietz, 317-341.

2010

• Competition and plurality: The beginning of the end of collective bargaining unity, In: Greef, Samuel/Kalass, Viktoria/Schroeder, Wolfgang (eds.): Gewerkschaften und die Politik der Erneuerung. Und sie bewegen sich doch, Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, 109-116.
• (Together with Wolfgang Schroeder and Samuel Greef): Gewerkschaftliche Erneuerungsdebatte, In: Greef, Samuel/Kalass, Viktoria/Schroeder, Wolfgang (eds.): Gewerkschaften und die Politik der Erneuerung. Und sie bewegen sich doch, Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, 8-11.
• (Together with Wolfgang Schroeder): Social Democracy and Trade Unions in Central and Eastern Europe. Weak links and hidden similarities, Berlin: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
• Railroad collective bargaining. Diversity of interests, in: iW Gewerkschaftsspiegel, 3, 3.
• The turnaround as an opportunity. Chemical executives in East and West. 20th anniversary of the founding of the VFCI, VAA: Cologne.
• 20 years ago: Foundation of the VFCI. No fear of contact between East and West, in: VAA Magazin, April, 14-16. 2008 - (Together with Wolfgang Schroeder and Samuel Greef): Kleine Gewerkschaften und Berufsverbände im Wandel, Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
• (Together with Wolfgang Schroeder): 68 in den Betrieben. The movement of 68 and the demand for more co-determination for employees, online publication, at: www1.bpb.de/themen/OC5VFT,0,0,68_in_den_Betrieben.html.

Academic career

February 2012

Doctorate at the University of Kassel, Department of Social Sciences, Political Science
Topic: New trade union competition at Deutsche Bahn AG. From the transformation of a professional association to the professional union of German locomotive drivers (GDL)
Reviewer: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder (University of Kassel)
Second reviewer: PD Dr. Martin Höpner (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne)

October 2010 - February 2012

Doctoral scholarship holder of the Hans Böckler Foundation

WS 2001/02 - WS 2007/08

Studied at the University of Cologne
Main subject: Political Science Minor subjects: Medieval/Modern History, English Philology
Degree: Magistra Artium
Title of Master's thesis: The role of the CDA within the CDU. Programmatic influence of the CDA on the co-determination decisions of the CDU
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. André Kaiser

WS 2000/01 - SoSe 2001

Study of economics; University of Cologne

2000

Abitur at Rupert-Ness-Gymnasium Wangen i. Allg.
Advanced courses: English, French

Professional career

Since April 2012

Officer for employment conditions and social policy, Deutsche Bahn AG

March 2008 - September 2010

Research Assistant Chair: The Changing Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder); University of Kassel

October 2008 - September 2010

Collaboration in the research project "Change in the employee association landscape and new actor constellations in collective interest representation policy"
Project management: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder
Project funding: Hans Böckler Foundation

March - September 2008

Collaboration in the research project "Industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe"
Project management: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder
Project funding: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

2005-2008

Student assistant Dr. Britta Rehder, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne
Main topics: Industrial relations, trade unions

2002-2004

Student Assistant, Chair of Prof. Dr. Werner Eck, University of Cologne, Institute of Classical Studies

August - October 2004

Internship in an office of a member of the Bundestag (Ute Berg; SPD)