Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – According to the head of the supervisory board Uwe Lahl, the state-owned Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-GmbH (SWEG) does not want to make an offer for the SWEG Bahn Stuttgart GmbH (SBS) at any price. This emerges from a letter from Lahl to the head of the train drivers’ union GDL, Claus Weselsky, which is available to the German Press Agency. Accordingly, the submission of an offer is also dependent on the further development of the tariff conflict with the GDL.
“We don’t want GDL in our parent company,” says the letter. The existing Verdi union is difficult enough for the company management. “Currently, our consideration is to either buy SBS or to keep the company peace in the parent company,” writes Lahl. According to the opinion formed so far, the supervisory board will decide in favor of peace in the company. The background to the statements is the fact that the GDL held out the prospect of further industrial action at SWEG and SBS. Lahl called for the return of the GDL to the negotiating table.
The collective bargaining dispute is about the fact that the GDL would like to negotiate a collective agreement not only for SBS in the future, but for the entire SWEG group with its 1800 employees. The GDL had already twice called for warning strikes.
The SBS is the former Abellio Rail Baden-Württemberg. The Abellio daughter got into financial difficulties at the end of 2021. The company then took over the state-owned SWEG for an initial period of two years. The corresponding route network must then be put out to tender again. The SWEG supervisory board wants to decide on the submission of an offer next Saturday.
