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Swedish bus strike over after pay deal

The nationwide bus strike finally came to an end late Thursday after employer and union groups managed to reach an agreement on new pay and conditions.

Published: 28 June 2013 07:54 CEST

Swedish bus strike over after pay deal

“We are very happy,” said Annelie Nordström at the Kommunal union.

The key issues for the union, aside from salary level, concerned working hours and that bus drivers sought a guarantee to avoid having to re-apply for their jobs when a new contractor takes over bus services.

Nordström is particularly pleased that Kommunal was able to push through all of their four key demands in the three-year contract.

“They are actually specified in the contracts. These include the transfer of staff to a new contractor and a far greater influence for members over working hours,” she said.

According to employers, the agreement stipulates wage increases in line with other other labour market sectors – 6.8 percent over three years.

“I am pleased that we can get transport rolling and that travellers no longer suffer,” Peter Jeppsson, CEO of Bus Employers (Bussarbetsgivarna), told the TT news agency.

He said that the wording of the contracts with regards to staff transfers means that there is an ambition to ensure that staff will continue employment.

“It’s not binding in the sense that everyone be transferred but we make a commitment to work towards that,” said Jeppsson.

Mattias Näsström, Traffic Operations Manager at ÖstgötaTrafiken, which includes the provision of tram services in Norrköping, expressed satisfaction at the deal.

“Now we can get going again and are in the process of running trams and buses.”

Norrköping had witnessed chaos on Thursday as visitors to the Bråvalla festival were having trouble getting to the festival site.

“In a few hours, I think that traffic should be back up and running properly,” Näsström said.

In Stockholm, regional transport authority SL said that services should be rolling as normal on Friday morning.

Minister of Employment Hillevi Engström expressed satisfaction that the nine day conflict had been brought to a conclusion, while stressing that it was a matter between the parties.

“It’s also a testament that the Swedish model works,” Engström said.

TT/The Local/pvs

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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.

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