Exberliner Issue 167, January 2018

TRAINS
“Last year, they put fruit baskets out for
drivers in the break rooms a few times each
week. But then they cancelled the practice
– supposedly it was too expensive!”
Pavel Mezihorák
around €1700. But some of my coworkers who haven’t been with
the company for as long don’t earn more than €1600 before taxes.
The low wages started with the new Tarifvertrag [labour contract]
in 2005 – it’s known informally as the Absenkungstarifvertrag because
it reduced our wages significantly. We were split into a twoclass
workforce: Workers who started here before 2005 have 36.5
hours per week, and workers like me who started later have 39
hours. The “old workers” get a bonus of several hundred euros a
month, which “new workers” don’t. And there are lots of subcontractors
working for the BVG who earn even less. Companies like
WISAG (page 18) do security, SASSE cleans stations and TEREG
cleans trains. The workers there have very few rights. A cleaner
lost her job because she was in hospital for too long!
THE LACK OF RESPECT
Some older colleagues have said: “I wouldn’t do this job for
so little money.” And they have a point. They have trouble
finding new people who want to work here. They even have to
employ retired drivers part-time on buses, trams and subways,
paying them €450 a month. Lots of young people quit after
a few years – some even switch to the S-Bahn, which, if you
know about the conditions at the S-Bahn, is rather telling.
That’s why they have all those hipster advertising campaigns:
“Anyone can be a blogger. Become a bus driver!”
BVG management is not very good at their core task – public
transport – but they are very professional when it comes to marketing.
They have lots of likes on Facebook for “Weil wir dich lieben.”
There was one ad recently that went something like: “A bus
The BVG’s viral video “Is’ mir egal” featured
Berliner Kazim Akboga as a friendly employee.
is like a classroom: The cool people sit in the back and the one in
the front just nags.” I mean, bus drivers have a tough job – one of
my colleagues has to deal with nausea and headaches caused by
the fumes from the cheap new buses the BVG bought recently.
Do they really need some highly paid marketing guy making fun
of them? Apparently, someone went to the manager responsible
for the ad and his response was more or less: “Is’ mir egal.”
WHY THIS INTERVIEW?
I’m a rank-and-file member of the union, and we’re negotiating
a new labour contract next year. Two years ago, we protested
against temporary contracts at the BVG – and management
was at least forced to partially stop the practice until the end
of this year. We need better pay and more regular shifts. Ultimately,
this isn’t just a question of the BVG management. It’s a
public company, so the Senat is responsible. And all of Berlin’s
governments, whether
red-black or red-redgreen,
have been involved
in outsourcing and cuts
in the BVG. It’s a political
question: Do we want the
people transporting us to
earn decent wages? n
As told to Wladek Flakin
under the condition of
anonymity.
THE BVG’S MARKETING COUP
Since the beginning of 2015, the “Weil wir
dich lieben” campaign (masterminded by
the local ad agency GUD) has attempted
to make Berlin’s transport system seem
brash and cool – and mostly succeeded.
With a social media budget of around
€500,000 a year, they’ve garnered
227,000 Facebook likes and 240,000
Twitter followers. Here are a few of their
most memorable moments:
December 2015: Repurposing Neukölln
rapper Kazim Akboga’s viral hit “Is’ mir
egal” to feature Akboga (who committed
suicide at the beginning of last year) as a
carefree U-Bahn controller.
September 2016: Poking fun at the BVG’s
constant delays, surly bus drivers and
mealy-mouthed controllers with a video
ad saying “It’s all intentional”.
January 2017: Facebooking an image of
a snow-covered U-Bahn carriage with
the caption, “It’s barely even Fashion
Week, and there’s already white powder
everywhere.”
December 2017: Getting Bono and The
Edge to play an acoustic mini-concert on
the platform of, yes, the U2.
JANUARY 2018 17