Thousands of train cancellations, hundreds of waiting freight trains: With a nationwide warning strike, the GDL train drivers’ union has paralyzed large parts of rail traffic in Germany since Thursday evening.
With a nationwide warning strike, the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) has been paralyzing large parts of rail traffic in Germany since Thursday evening. The emergency timetable had started, the railway announced on Friday morning. The announcement apparently reached most passengers in time. A railway spokesman in Berlin said the situation was very quiet at many train stations in Germany early on Friday morning. “With this short-term strike announcement, the GDL is ruining the Advent weekend for millions of passengers.”
The federally owned company has once again stopped around 80 percent of long-distance traffic. In regional transport, however, there are big differences depending on the region, said the spokesman. Thousands of trains are likely to be affected. The railway did not initially provide exact figures. “There are 50,000 trains running in Germany every day,” it was simply said in the morning. These also include trains from railway companies that are not directly affected by the strike.
The aim of the railway is to be able to offer the regular timetable again in full by Saturday morning. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that everything is running again by the start of operations on Saturday,” emphasized the spokesman. However, the effects will be felt for longer in freight transport. Even before the warning strike began, around 170 trains had backed up here due to the winter chaos in Bavaria, as the railway announced on Thursday. “It is feared that this number will double,” said a spokesman.
Industrial action until 10 p.m
This is the second warning strike by the GDL train drivers’ union in the current collective bargaining round at Deutsche Bahn. In passenger traffic it started at 10 p.m. on Thursday evening, and in freight traffic it started a few hours earlier. The industrial action is expected to last until Friday evening at 10 p.m. It’s not just Deutsche Bahn that is affected. The competitor Transdev is also on strike. The Nordwestbahn and the Rhine-Ruhr Railway of the group in North Rhine-Westphalia are affected. Transdev employees were also called on a warning strike in Hanover and central Germany.
The GDL has now declared collective bargaining at both companies to have failed. The crux of the matter in both cases is the GDL’s demand for a reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours with full wage compensation. Employers have so far rejected this.
Survey: Little understanding of warning strikes
According to a survey, the majority of people in Germany have no understanding of the warning strike. 59 percent of a total of around 3,700 respondents answered accordingly in a representative survey by the opinion research institute Yougov. 30 percent, however, expressed understanding for the industrial dispute.
Younger people were therefore more lenient than older people. The proportion of those aged 25 to 34 who were understanding was around 38 percent in the survey. Among respondents aged 55 and over, it was only one in four.
After the warning strike, passengers can take a deep breath. GDL boss Weselsky has ruled out further labor disputes up to and including January 7th. After that everything is possible again.
Source: Stern
