Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

THAILAND

Swedes caught up in Thai unrest

Hundreds of Swedes are among the estimated 3,000 travelers stranded in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport after violent anti-government protesters stormed the building on Tuesday, forcing authorities to shut down operations.

Published: 26 November 2008 09:17 CET
Swedes caught up in Thai unrest

On Wednesday, there were reports of several explosions at the airport, resulting in injuries to four people.

The Swedish foreign ministry estimates that a few hundred Swedes are caught up in the unrest, but the exact number remains unclear.

“They can’t get out of there, either home to Sweden or into the city,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Gufran al-Nadaf to the TT news agency on Tuesday.

“The roads are blocked and there are demonstrators at the airport. All flights are cancelled.”

A Thai Airways flight with 380 travelers from Sweden on its way to Thailand late Tuesday night was however able to land at Bangkok’s old Don Muang airport.

An airport spokesperson told the Reuters news agency the airport would remain closed through Wednesday, and Scandinavian airline SAS said it was cancelling all flights to Bangkok until security can be guaranteed.

Around 50 of the passengers who were scheduled to take an SAS flight to Copenhagen on Tuesday were able to check in but were then forced to wait at the airport.

“We don’t know what will happen with them because our staff was asked by authorities to leave the airport,” said SAS spokesperson Anne Mette Philipsen to TT.

Around 40 other passengers who had not yet checked in for their flights, ended up leaving the airport to take refuge in a hotel in the city.

A total of nine passengers flying with the Apollo charter company were also stuck at the airport, while an additional six never checked in and could be taken back to their hotel.

“Our personnel have called all of our Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish passengers who are there. None of them are especially worried for their own safety,” said Apollo spokesperson Kajsa Moström.

“They describe the situation as chaotic but they aren’t afraid.”

The Apollo passengers were scheduled to fly with Thai Airways, but as of Tuesday evening they had no further information about when they may be able to leave the airport.

Charter company Ving had about fifteen of its own travelers on their way to Bangkok aboard a Thai Airways flight.

“The latest information we have is that all departures have been cancelled, but that certain planes have been allowed to land. Otherwise, they are being redirected to other airports,” said Ving spokesperson Magdalena Öhrn.

The unrest in the Thai capital is part of a campaign by the opposition People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to oust the current government.

The PAD has occupied government offices since August and accuses the government of being a corrupt puppet regime of the deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is currently seeking asylum in the UK.

PAD protesters had hoped that by taking over the airport they could intercept the plane of current Thai prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, which was scheduled to return from Peru on Tuesday.

The protests also coincide with the start of high season for Swedish tourism to Thailand. Last year, around 360,000 Swedes visited the country according to the Fritidsresor charter company.

While Swedish travel companies continue to monitor the situation in Bangkok, they emphasized that many Swedish travelers choose to bypass the capital and instead travel directly to popular destinations like Phuket or Krabi.

“We have about 6,000 Swedes in Thailand now. Eighty of them are in Bangkok, they arrived on Tuesday morning,” said Fritidsresor spokesperson Marie Malmros.

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

SHOW COMMENTS