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Frankfurters told to get on bikes as public transport grinds to halt

On Wednesday public transport in Frankfurt am Main will almost completely shut down, leading one local newspaper to advise locals to make use of rental bikes.

Published: 27 March 2018 15:43 CEST

Frankfurters told to get on bikes as public transport grinds to halt

Photo: DPA

Things started to get complicated for commuters in Frankfurt on Monday when Deutsche Bahn closed down the train tunnel in the inner city to lay a new electricity cable, the Frankfurter Rundschau reports.

Seven of the city’s nine S-Bahn lines have been affected by the closure, which is to last until April 9th.

Despite the fact that Deutsche Bahn announced the closure months in advance, public service union Ver.di have decided to throw fuel on the fire of the crippled transport machinery by striking on the city’s tram and U-Bahn lines on Wednesday.

Ver.di, which is calling for a six percent pay increase for public workers nationwide, said Tuesday that it would stick to the decision taken on Friday to strike for the whole day.

When Ver.di called strikes in Cologne last week, the S-Bahn proved to be a vital alternative source of transport for commuters desperate to get to work.

The S-Bahn is managed by Deutsche Bahn, whose workers negotiate pay deals with the state-owned company through their own train unions and are thus not involved in the current pay dispute.

That leaves commuters with the possibility of travelling on overcrowded buses, or on the few S-Bahn lines that have not been affected by the tunnel closure.

Frankfurter Rundschau has another alternative for commuters – rental bikes. There are a total of 2,700 bikes parked at 300 stations across the financial hub.

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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