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German train drivers plan third wave of strikes starting Wednesday

Rail passengers in Germany will face six more days of disrupted travel as the GDL train drivers' union plans further industrial action from September 1st.

Published: 30 August 2021 17:51 CEST
German train drivers plan third wave of strikes starting Wednesday
GDL members protest in Munich in August. Photo: dpa | Sven Hoppe

The planned action will take place from 5pm on Wednesday, September 1st and end on Tuesday, September 7th at 2am – marking it the longest industrial strike so far in the ongoing dispute between the GDL and Deutsche Bahn.

The renewed walkouts will bring fresh pain for commuters as summer holidays draw to a close, and are likely to further aggravate supply chain woes.

Beginning on Wednesday with a walk-out on freight trains, the strikes will be expanded to passenger trains from Thursday at 2am. 

It will mark the third and longest round of stoppages yet after GDL called two rounds of strikes earlier in August.

Battle over wages 

The train drivers’ union and the state-owned railway company have been at loggerheads for several weeks over a disagreement over wage increases.

GDL argues that it is fighting for better remuneration for train drivers, and is demanding a 1.4-percent pay hike and a bonus of €600 for 2021, and a further wage rise of 1.8 percent in 2022.

Deutsche Bahn, meanwhile, had offered to phase in a 3.2-percent wage increase in two steps, but wants to apply it in 2022 and 2023 following a pay freeze this year. The company has also agreed to consider proposals for a Covid bonus, but has not yet named a figure.

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

The train operator has suffered huge losses due to a drop in demand for travel over the course of the Covid pandemic and is struggling to rebuild kilometres of tracks destroyed by deadly floods that struck western Germany in mid-July.

‘Campaign against their own employees’

In a press release announcing the move on Monday, GDL chairman Claus Weselsky claimed that the railway operator “hadn’t moved a millimetre” from its original position.

The GDL pointed out that DB competitors such as Transdev, Netinera and Go-Ahead had recently agreed to the union’s demands for wage increases and a bonus for working throughout the pandemic.

“Although also affected by the coronavirus pandemic, a 1.4 percent wage increase in 2021 and a €600 Covid bonus, as well as a 1.8 percent wage increase in 2022 with a term of 28 months for all professions in the rail system, were not an obstacle for these railway companies,” the GDL said.

READ ALSO: Germany’s train strikes: What rights do you have as a passenger?

“Deutsche Bahn should take this as an example,” said Weselsky. “The unfortunate campaign against their own employees and the legitimate representation of their interests by the GDL must to come to an end. The behaviour of managers is absolutely unworthy of a large employer.”

“The railway workers deserve recognition and appreciation. They will not stop asking for it until they are granted it,” he added.

Deutsche Bahn hit back on Monday, saying the latest strike call was “in no way justified”.

“A collective wage agreement is reached through negotiations and cannot be dictated,” the company’s personnel director Martin Seiler said in a statement.

The previous strikes saw long-distance and urban services running at 30 to 40 percent capacity, and Deutsche Bahn said it expected a similar impact on travellers this week.

The company has not yet set out a replacement train timetable for the duration of the strikes.

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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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