German train drivers went on strike starting Wednesday evening

The GDL and Deutsche Bahn union are currently negotiating new tariffs. Train drivers stopped working from Wednesday to Thursday evening, much to Deutsche Bahn’s annoyance.

Millions of rail travelers will have to prepare for numerous train cancellations and delays in Germany from Wednesday evening. The train drivers’ union GDL on Tuesday announced the first Germany-wide warning strike in this year’s collective bargaining round starting Wednesday at 10 p.m. The strike is scheduled to continue until Thursday at six in the evening.

“The employees are very dissatisfied, and their concerns are legitimate,” union leader Klaus Weselski explained. “Anyone who thinks they can exploit time at the expense of their employees is wrong. Now is the time to make improvements, there is no delay!” The railways were not yet ready to respond to basic demands such as reducing working hours. Deutsche expects that the strike will have a huge impact on operations. The state-owned company explained that the information will be provided as quickly and as comprehensively as possible.

“Unreasonable for train passengers”

Human Resources Director Martin Seiler was annoyed in return: “This is an unreasonable expectation for railway passengers. This strike is completely unnecessary,” he said. “We have negotiations on the calendar on Thursday and Friday that we have agreed together,” he said. The train drivers’ union is ignoring agreements and behaving irresponsibly.” There is already an 11% offer from DB on the table from the opening round with an additional inflation-compensating bonus of up to €2,850.

According to Deutsche Bahn, GDL is negotiating for nearly 10,000 employees at the state-owned company, which has more than 200,000 employees in Germany alone. However, a train drivers’ strike could have huge impacts on passenger and freight transport throughout Germany. However, GDL has relatively few employees in the network area. The larger railway and transport union EVG could paralyze the signal boxes there with a strike, with the result that entire sections of the route would have to be closed. The railways have also already announced that it will use particularly long trains to try to transport as many people as possible to their destination, even if the timetable is reduced.

35 hours per week is required for shift workers

GDL charges, among other things, an additional 555 euros per month. In addition, working hours for shift workers will be reduced from 38 to 35 hours per week without a reduction in wages. In addition, a tax-free inflation bonus of €3,000 is required once. The period must not exceed twelve months. Deutsche Bahn rejects the demands as too high. (APA/Reuters)