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STRIKES

German rail strikes continue to impact cross-country services

Rail services across Germany - including between Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden - continue to be heavily impacted by a continuing strike by the German Train Driver's Union (GDL).

Published: 12 August 2021 09:31 CEST
Updated: 12 August 2021 16:12 CEST
German rail strikes continue to impact cross-country services
Passengers check the departures board at Stralsund Hauptbahnhof on Wednesday, August 11th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Stefan Sauer

According to Deutsche Bahn, substitute timetables have been in effect since Wednesday.

About 25 percent of the long-distance trains are running, while 40 percent of regional trains are currently in service – with strong regional differences. According to the railway, the company is “doing everything in its power” to return to regular service as soon as possible after the strike ends on Friday night.

Reports from the operator suggest that, much like Wednesday, the east is more affected by the strike than the west: More trains are likely to run on the western German regional trains on Thursday, because there are more civil servant train drivers on duty here who don’t have the right to strike.

READ ALSO: Majority of long-distance trains disrupted as German rail strike kicks off

Since GDL is most active in the East, hardly any trains were running on Wednesday between Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden, while other intercity routes have also been impacted.

‘Totally unnecessary’

At Berlin’s main station on Wednesday, the departures board was largely blank. Of the few trains shown, some were cancelled, others delayed.

“I think the strike is totally unnecessary,” said Peter Gramlich, 78, who was travelling to the western city of Bochum to visit his mother-in-law with his wife Heike, 63.

The coronavirus pandemic makes the situation worse, according to Gramlich. “Our train will now be very full,” he said, indicating the difficulty they will have social distancing from other passengers.


Passengers board a packed-out Flixtrain headed for Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Cities like Berlin in the eastern regions of Germany have been particularly badly affected by the strikes. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Schmidt

Meanwhile, Matthias Hattendorf, 66, who turned up at the station early this morning to make sure he got a train home to Hamburg after visiting Berlin, criticised the timing of the strikes.

“I think this was the wrong time,” said  “Tourism is starting to get going again. People want to travel.”

However, a recent survey by YouGov suggests that around a third (31 percent) of people in Germany have some sympathy for the strike by the GDL. More than one in two (55 per cent) said they didn’t agree with it, while 14 percent of the respondents were undecided.

According to the data, understanding for the GDL strike is slightly higher in the East (39 per cent) than in the West (29 per cent).

Battling a post-Covid pay freeze

The train drivers’ union is fighting for more money and better working conditions for its members at Deutsche Bahn.

Unlike the larger railway and transport union (EVG), which signed an agreement with DB last autumn, it does not want to accept a pay freeze this year after train drivers worked throughout the pandemic.

READ ALSO: German train drivers call strike in escalating wage dispute

However, the move has also been framed as part of an ongoing power struggle between EVG and GDL, with some accusing GDL of using the strike to gain increased influence with rail employees.

The GDL is demanding wage increases as in the public sector of about 3.2 percent over 28 months, as well as a Covid bonus of €600 euros in the current year. But it has said it is willing to negotiate. 

There is also a dispute about company pensions.

Due to losses of billions of euros in the pandemic, the railways wants to increase wages incrementally over a duration of 40 months. In addition, the company said it would rule out the dismissal of employees for operational reasons.

The strike is set to continue until Friday at 2:00 am local time.

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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.

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