The managements assertion that there is less demand for maintanence work is utter nonsense. Here in Munich there are almost daily long delays because one of the shaddy old trains has broken down and is blocking the whole track. Britain shows clearly what is going to happen if there are even more cuts. Johannes >From the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung www.faz.com Railworkers Demonstrate Against Job Cuts By Kerstin Schwenn BERLIN. Several hundred angry railway workers took to the streets on a gray Thursday, bound for the new Sony Center, the Berlin skyscraper of polished glass where the leaders of Deutsche Bahn made the job-killing decisions that fueled the protesters' rage. Waving union banners and blowing whistles, the workers vented their indignation at the railways' newest plans to save money. The plans, announced early this week by the executive board, are designed to "consolidate capacities" by closing six vehicle maintenance plants next year. Several other factories are to be downsized. As a result, the railway says about 3,000 jobs, most of them in eastern Germany, may be cut. The workers' union, however, fears that more than 5,000 are in danger. The Deutsche Bahn says the cuts will be carried out in a "socially acceptable" way. But the signs that the workers carried expressed doubts about that pledge and issued a plea to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder: "Gerhard, call back your hangman!" Deutsche Bahn is led by Hartmut Mehdorn, who became head of the railway just under a year ago. His task is to push forward the plan his two predecessors Heinz Dürr and Johannes Ludewig had hesitatingly begun: to restructure the company within 10 years after the railway reform of 1994, to make it profitable and to end its previous dependence on state subsidies, except for infrastructure investments in the rails. But the company is having difficulties completing this trip from being a government agency to becoming an enterprise attractive to financial markets. Six years into the reform, the start of the journey is still closer than the destination. Mr. Mehdorn is determined to fulfill his task and expresses confidence that he will succeed. He is experienced, having served as a manager at Airbus and a printing press manufacturing company. But he cannot reinvent the rails, so he began by taking inventory. He wants to uncover the causes of the railway's malaise. In the last six years, DM90 billion ($39 billion) were invested in the company, staff cuts were carried out, and productivity was increased. But sales have stagnated at DM30 billion a year. Last year, the profit to which it had grown accustomed was eaten up by operating costs. Cuts in Rail JobsThe search for weak points in the run-down rail network, in the routing and frequency of passenger and freight trains, in income structures and in work schedules has made the 240,000 railway workers nervous. They know that unpleasant consequences are unavoidable. The most that the constant pressure from worker representatives and unions can accomplish is to soften a hard blow. Mathematically, 70,000 jobs must be eliminated if the railway is to achieve its goal of saving DM3.6 billion a year in personnel costs. Mr. Mehdorn does not want to be tied to the various political functions foreseen for the railway, but to face the "realities of the market." He defends the closure of the maintenance plants, arguing that "under the given conditions, they are no longer justifiable." The railway suffers from overcapacity, partially as a result of the fusion of the West and East German rail systems. The demand for maintenance services has fallen drastically because many companies have bought new cars. Mr. Mehdorn did not originate the idea of rapidly shedding Deutsche Bahn's responsibility for the maintenance plants. The railway says that, in the last two years, it has negotiated fruitlessly with "several hundred potential investors" about selling these operations, which are not part of the core of its business. _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
