Transnet

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Logo of the former Transnet union

The Transnet - Union of Railway Workers in Germany ( GdED , spelling TRANSNET ) was a union of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) based in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main . It merged on November 30, 2010 with the transport union GDBA to form the railway and transport union (EVG).

history

The union has a long history. On January 13, 1897, the Association of Railway Workers in Germany was founded in Hamburg , which was also known colloquially as the Hamburg Association . The state authorities rated the association as highly dangerous. In a special issue of its official gazette, the Mainz Railway Directorate published a warning against the Hamburg Association , "which apparently aims to disturb the peace between administration and staff and to serve anti-order tendencies" and threatens every employee who becomes a member of the association or supports it , with dismissal. On October 23, 1898, the Association for the Bavarian Railway Workshops and Operational Workers was established in southern Germany . Union-oriented railway workers' associations were also formed in other regions of southern Germany. At the beginning of July 1908, the Hamburg Association of the Reich Section of Railway Workers of the German Transport Workers Association joined. In the course of several mergers with the southern German associations, the German Railway Workers Association (DEV) was formed in 1916 . 1925 resulted from the merger of DEV and union German railway officials and -anwärter the unit Association of German Railway Workers (Eded). EdED can be seen as the most important predecessor organization of TRANSNET . The EdED was smashed in connection with Hitler's seizure of power on May 2, 1933.

On March 25, 1948, the railway workers 'association, which was banned under National Socialism, was re-established under the name of the German Railway Workers' Union (GdED) . She was a founding member of the DGB.

At the beginning of 1990, employees of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR founded a free railway workers ' union outside the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB), the Railway Workers' Union (GdE). On October 25, 1990, the GdE joined the GdED during an extraordinary trade union day in Kassel. In 1990 it had 320,000 members. At the end of 1993 the number of members was 451,000.

In 1994 the Federal Railroad and the Reichsbahn merged. From then on the company was called Deutsche Bahn . DB was founded as a stock corporation and thus formally privatized. At the same time, the rail transport market was also opened up to other providers. The GdED opened up accordingly to employees of private or so-called non-federally owned (NE) railways . According to the principle of “one company - one union”, it also organizes employees of companies that belong to the DB Group, without actually being “railway workers”.

In order to take account of this change, the union decided in mid-May 2000 to change its name to TRANSNET (made up of TRANsport, Service and NETze) or Transnet GdED . The new name came into effect on July 1, 2000. In mid-2000 the union had 340,000 members, including 50,000 non-railroaders.

From 2002 Transnet cooperated with the transport union GDBA . In the summer of 2005, this cooperation was consolidated through the formation of a collective bargaining association. In October 2007, Transnet had around 250,000 members. At the international level, she was a member of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF).

In 2008, the number of members decreased by 4.9 percent to 227,690. The reasons given for this were the change of former union chairman Norbert Hansen to Deutsche Bahn and many deaths among older members.

Cover of the monthly magazine Transnet inform

There was a monthly information magazine for members called Transnet Inform . This magazine appeared for the last time in November 2010 and was replaced by EVG imtakt in December 2010.

The railway union Transnet was merged with the union of German Federal Railway Officials and Candidates (GDBA). To this end, the new Railway and Transport Union (EVG) was founded on November 30, 2010 . The Transnet brought 230,000 members and the GDBA 40,000 members into the new union. This was the largest union among unions since Verdi was founded in 2001.

criticism

Transnet was criticized for being the only trade union in the railway industry to advocate partial privatization of the railway. Critics accused Transnet of being no longer an independent union, but merely the extended arm of Deutsche Bahn AG. The approximately 120,000 employees of Deutsche Bahn organized in Transnet received numerous advantages that other employees were not entitled to. A special fund for social benefits financed by DB came up. A report of the revision of the Deutsche Bahn in 2002 criticized various preferences for Transnet works councils. Among other things, Transnet works councils would have received wages up to 85 percent above the tariff level.

The union's formerly capital privatization-friendly course has also been criticized. According to media reports, the union was hoping to increase its membership through an expansion financed by cash inflows after the company's IPO. In the summer of 2006, workers organized in Transnet went on a warning strike in favor of capital privatization. In November 2008, after the departure of Norbert Hansen, the union announced at its union day that it would review its position on capital privatization.

The former Transnet chairman Norbert Hansen moved to the board of directors of Deutsche Bahn in May 2008. Critics then accused him of having prepared this change by advocating rail privatization.

Between 1994 and 1998 the trade union Transnet commissioned the railway to check to what extent Transnet members pay their contributions in accordance with the statutes. In 2008, Deutsche Bahn refused to carry out a further comparison due to changes in data protection guidelines.

Chair of the GdED and Transnet

literature

  • Transnet Union (Ed.): 175 years of employees in the railways. Your constant struggle to improve living and working conditions 1835–2010 . Frankfurt a. M. 2010.
  • Transnet Union (Ed.): Transnet. Union at the railways 1945–2008 . Frankfurt a. M. 2009.
  • Transnet Union (ed.): The future has a past. 110 years of union at the railways 1896–2006 . Hof 2006 and new edition: Frankfurt a. M. 2010.
  • Eisenbahnverkehrgewerkschaft (Ed.), Unity. From the fragmentation of the railway workers to the unified railway and transport union (EVG) 1835-2012 . Frankfurt a. M. 2012.
  • Eisenbahnverkehrgewerkschaft (Ed.), Employees of the railways and their unions. The constant struggle to improve living and working conditions (1835–2017) . Frankfurt a. M. 2017.
  • Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration (1933–1945) (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 7). Metropol, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 , p. 35 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About Us ( Memento of October 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), September 3, 2007
  2. ↑ http://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Transnet-GDBA-EVG-article2047026.html
  3. ^ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Hrsg.): Collection of the published official gazettes from December 10, 1902. 6th year. No. 69. Announcement No. 583, p. 623.
  4. ^ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Hrsg.): Collection of the published Official Gazette 7 (1903). Mainz 1904. Official Gazette of December 8, 1903. No. 60 (special issue). Announcement No. 672, p. 515 f.
  5. ^ Unified Association of Railway Workers in Germany. (PDF; 28 kB) Friedrich Ebert Foundation , accessed on March 16, 2013 .
  6. ^ A b c Christian Esser, Astrid Randerath : Schwarzbuch Deutsche Bahn , 1st edition, Bertelsmann-Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-10036-3 , pp. 161–171
  7. ↑ a b News update shortly . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2000, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 342.
  8. ↑ Erich Preuß : Die Zerrissene Bahn, 1990-2000. Facts, legends, background. Transpress, 2001, p. 152.
  9. ↑ Unions stop wastage . In: Tagesspiegel , January 18, 2009
  10. ↑ börsennews.de: Railway unions Transnet and GDBA merge (accessed on October 30, 2009)
  11. ↑ Transnet boss changes sides ( Memento from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) May 8, 2008
  12. ^ Heise.de: Railway checks union contributions (accessed on May 17, 2009)