Rail strike in Germany – train drivers have stopped work – News

  • The train drivers of Deutsche Bahn (DB) have stopped work once again.
  • The strike in passenger transport began on Tuesday night at 2 a.m. and is expected to last 24 hours, as a railway spokeswoman confirmed in the morning.
  • In Germany, passengers have to expect major restrictions.

This is already the sixth industrial action by the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) in the current collective bargaining round. On Monday, the railway tried unsuccessfully to have the strike stopped in court – and then announced that it would appeal to the Hessian State Labor Court.

The appeal is not scheduled to be heard until Tuesday around noon – after the strike begins. If the Hessian State Labor Court decides differently than the Frankfurt Labor Court, the GDL would have to interrupt its strike. However, this would not mean an immediate end to the restrictions for passengers.

Restrictions and failures in Germany


Open the box
Close the box

The DB has organized an emergency timetable that secures around a fifth of long-distance train traffic. Regional transport and the S-Bahn of Deutsche Bahn are also affected. The offer there can vary greatly depending on the region. Even after the strike ended on Wednesday, passengers must continue to expect train cancellations and delays. The strike in freight transport began on Monday evening.

The trains on the Swiss route network will run as planned, as the SBB announced on the online portal X. The Swiss railway company advises against traveling by train to Germany during the strike. It is said that the SBB cannot adjust the online timetable due to the short notice. Travelers should contact the affected railways directly to find out about possible effects.

The GDL announced the current strike at much shorter notice than the previous industrial disputes. With these “wave strikes” union boss Claus Weselsky wants to increase the pressure on DB. The DB had criticized the short-term announcement. The company said the strike would once again have a massive impact on all German rail operations.

Legend:

Once again the trains in Germany are at a standstill: the GDL union is carrying out the sixth strike in the ongoing collective bargaining round.

Keystone/DPA/SVEN HOPPE

The union is fighting for higher wages and shorter working hours. Shift workers should work 35 instead of 38 hours a week for the same wage. In a moderation, the railway accepted a compromise proposal to reduce working hours to 36 hours in two steps by 2028. The GDL refused and allowed the talks to fail.

“People have to go to work”

The federal government had declared that it would stay out of the dispute at the state-owned company DB. Both sides should keep an eye on the impact on people, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. The Ministry of Transport had emphasized that the appeal was aimed primarily at the GDL. According to a spokesman, she goes overboard.

The German chemical industry warns of the consequences


Open the box
Close the box

The German chemical industry warns of the consequences of the repeated strikes by the train drivers’ union GDL for the economy: “Such actions will place a further heavy burden on Germany, an already struggling business location. We simply can’t afford any more standstill on the railways,” said Wolfgang Grosse Entrup, managing director of the Chemical Industry Association (VCI), to the German Press Agency. He appealed to those involved “to finally find an acceptable compromise after months of negotiations.”

For the chemical-pharmaceutical industry, the rail strikes announced by the GDL “without sufficient warning” once again represented a major logistical challenge. The industry companies did everything they could to ensure that their transports ran as smoothly as possible. “The restrictions and delays in rail logistics caused by the strike are difficult to compensate for,” said Grosse Entrup. The railway is very important for the industry in terms of supplying raw materials and shipping intermediate and finished products. On average every day, German chemical companies transport around 155,000 tons of chemicals, of which 23,000 tons by rail, the VCI explained based on figures for 2022.

DB human resources director Martin Seiler had denounced the new strike in advance: “This unplanning is unacceptable. People have to go to work, goods have to go to the factories. Without the railway nothing works in this country.” Anyone who demands a reduction in working hours from 38 to 35 hours and could get 36 hours in an overall package should not paralyze the entire country.

GDL boss Claus Weselsky told the media in Berlin that he definitely sees room for negotiation when it comes to working hours. So one could talk about the gradual and temporal extension of the introduction of the 35-hour week. The GDL has agreed this with other companies until 2028. He also hadn’t ruled out strikes over Easter: “We won’t say how much we’ll strike and until when.”

source site-72