The GDL engineers' union "refused to accept'' proposed terms for talks on a new remuneration system, Norbert Hansen, head of the fellow Transnet union, told reporters after joint discussions with management in Berlin today. "The GDL's conduct is completely irresponsible.'' New walkouts before the union's planned Sept. 30 deadline "could now happen.''

Relations between the three main unions representing staff at Deutsche Bahn soured earlier this year after the GDL rejected a 4.5 percent pay increase accepted by fellow unions Transnet and GDBA. The GDL held limited strikes in July and August to press its own claim for a raise of as much as 31 percent for some 20,000 train drivers and 10,000 ticketing staff.

The Frankfurt-based GDL, after entering mediation, last month dropped a demand for separate talks with Deutsche Bahn and pledged to cooperate with fellow unions on negotiating a new pay system. The GDL "effectively buried'' that position today, GDBA head Klaus-Dieter Hommel told reporters.

The two mediators, former Saxony state premier, Kurt Biedenkopf, and Heiner Geissler, a one-time general secretary of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, were faced with "an insurmountable task'' to narrow dissent between management and unions, Hommel said. The latest rift among the unions "hasn't made their task any easier,'' he said.

'Wrong Concepts'

Deutsche Bahn's human resources director, Margret Suckale,accused the GDL's leadership of keeping to "wrong concepts'' in wage bargaining, according to an e-mailed statement.

Train drivers in Germany earn about 1,500 euros a month net on average, less than their counterparts in neighbouring France or Switzerland, according to the union. GDL wants gross monthly pay to rise to at least 2,500 euros and weekly hours to be cut to 40 from currently 41.

Hansen said Transnet and GDBA will now continue their own talks with Deutsche Bahn on future payment rules. If GDL manages to secure a bigger raise than the 4.5 percent from the company,Transnet and GDBA may follow by seeking higher compensation for their members too.

"Of course, members will then expect to get similarraises,'' Hansen said. "After all, it's not about what we want but what our members expect.''

GDL members voted Aug. 6 to stage the first open-ended railway strikes in Germany since 1992 before mediators werecalled in to de-escalate the conflict. All-out strikes by theGDL could cause revenue losses of 500 million euros ($685million) a day, according to the Berlin-based DIW economic institute.

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Bahn Says New Strikes Possible After Union Split

Javno.com: September 20

Deutsche Bahn said that new strikes were possible after a split between its unions dimmed chances of securing a new wage agreement.

Reuters German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said on Thursday that new strikes were possible after a split between its unions dimmed chances of securing a new wage agreement by an end-of-month deadline.

After months of disruptive walkouts, Deutsche Bahn and its unions agreed last month to hold talks on a new wage deal with the aim of reaching a compromise by the end of September.

But on Thursday, the Transnet and GDBA unions said their attempts to cooperate with another union representing train drivers had collapsed.

"Naturally we now recognise that there is a chance" of new strikes, Bahn personnel chief Margret Sukale told reporters in Berlin.

The 34,000-member GDL drivers' union had previously refused to sign up to a wage deal agreed by the two other unions that foresaw salary increases of 4.5 percent. The September talks were aimed at getting a single deal for all three unions.

GDL rejected sharp criticism from the other unions and said it planned to continue the wage talks.

The drivers say they are underpaid given the high level of responsibility required in the job and compared with drivers in other European countries.

They staged walkouts in recent months that disrupted passenger and freight services. The strikes have come at an awkward time for the company, which is on track to be partly privatised by 2009.