Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

STRIKES

France: Strikes set to bring travel misery

Tuesday could be a miserable day to travel, well, anywhere in France, given that taxi drivers, farmers, air-traffic controllers and civil servants are all set to strike.

Published: 25 January 2016 11:41 CET
France: Strikes set to bring travel misery
The last taxi drivers strike saw people having to walk to airports. Photo: AFP

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE LATEST ON TUESDAY'S STRIKES

Taxi drivers are set to protest once again over what they see as unfair competition from private hire cabs and the government’s inability to enforce laws designed to protect their industry.

The taxi protests could see the roads around airports blocked from early Tuesday morning as well as part of the the péripherique ring road around Paris.

Taxi union chiefs have called for the protest to be held peacefully, after similar protests in June last year spiralled into violence.

“A violent protest would be counter-productive,” said Thierry Guichard, head of the Taxis de France collective.

On the eve of the strike French cabbies arch enemy Uber made what was seen as a provocative move by offering to open up their platform to taxi drivers, rather than just their own Uber drivers.

And air traffic controllers are also due to strike, which could impact on up to 50 percent of flights according to reports.

However French aviation chiefs said on Monday they believe only 20 percent of flights will be hit, however that would still mean disruption for thousands of passengers travelling to and from France as well as through French air space. 

Airlines have not yet released information on the flights that will be affected or indeed how many, but passengers are advised to keep an eye on their websites.

The controllers' unions want to be exempted from proposed changes to how salaries are calculated, which they say would hurt their purchasing power.
   
They also denounce the loss of some 1,000 jobs in less than 10 years.Farmers who have been blockading roads in the west  of the country in protest against falling prices could also cause further disruption if they decide to continue their action.

The strike has been called by public service unions as a “day of action” against a loss of spending power and cuts to jobs.

Meanwhile France's some 5.6 million civil servants have been called to down tools in Paris and other cities to protest against labour reforms proposed last September affecting pay and career advancement.
   
The leftist FO union says that, with inflation, a July 2010 freeze in automatic pay increases has cost civil servants eight percent of their purchasing power.
   
The striking unions also denounce job losses totalling some 150,000 since 2007, mainly before  2012, and say the hospital sector is especially in need of job creation.

 

 

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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