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Rail strike plunges Germany into chaos

by editor

BERLIN — A nationwide rail strike is creating turmoil for German travelers at the peak of the holiday travel season — and there are worries the shutdown will extend longer than originally planned.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said in a statement that it “could not guarantee” all travelers would get to their final destinations and urged people who “do not absolutely have to travel to postpone their trip if possible.”

In a bid to make maximum use of the few trains that are running, DB said it would scrap its coronavirus measures and allow people to sit closer to each other.

The strike was supposed to end at 2 a.m. on Friday, but the pay dispute between the German Train Drivers Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn hasn’t been resolved. GDL head Claus Weselksy did not rule out further strikes, but said he wanted to “handle the collective bargaining power carefully.”

The strike first hit freight operator DB Cargo on Tuesday before expanding to cover passenger services. Only a quarter of long-distance trains were running Thursday, and only 40 percent of regional services were operating.

The union is trying to force DB to speed up an agreed 3.2 percent wage increase.

Norbert Walter-Borjans, co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, slammed the union’s approach and told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland on Thursday that travelers should not be “duped by effectively unannounced strike action.”

The lack of DB trains is pushing travelers to take regional trains, straining those operators. In Berlin, mass transit operator BVG is using extra vehicles on some routes.

The biggest impact of the strike is being felt in eastern Germany, where the proportion of GDL union members is higher than in the west. In western Germany, more train drivers are employed by the state, meaning they’re not allowed to strike.

The strike is also causing tensions between unions. Klaus-Dieter Hommel, the head of rival rail union EVG, called the stoppage a “political” fight.

“GDL is fighting for its existence and wants to drive EVG out of the company,” he told Deutschlandfunk radio on Thursday.

At the heart of the conflict, Hommel said, is the law on collective bargaining unity. This dictates that in a workplace, the wage agreement is concluded with the union with the most members.

The GDL, however, with its 37,000 members, only represents the majority in 16 of around 300 workplaces. It now wants to attract more members from the EVG, in which 190,000 rail workers are organized, with more attractive contracts to expand its influence.

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