More railway strikes in Germany

We thought it was all over – but obviously it isn’t. The Bahnstreiks, or railway strikes. It seems that the union that represents the train drivers is planning strikes for next week, even though they effectively got what they were asking for.

Just listen to the details of the deal that they worked out with Deutsche Bahn recently:

  • an extra wage agreement “Tarifvertrag” for train drivers
  • a back-dated one-off payment
  • an 8% wage rise from March 2008
  • a further 3% wage rise in September 2008
  • a reduction of working hours from February 2009 onwards

There are probably many unions out there that can only dream of an 11% wage rise!

But now they cannot agree on what to do with shunters, or with temporary staff leased from other parts of the company.

And because they cannot agree, the GDL – the union representing the train drivers – says that they are going on strike again on Monday. Indefinitely.

Indefinitely? Because of a few small details? They didn’t even go that far to get their main targets met!

In the meantime the poor passengers are left stranded, and probably wishing that they could have an 11% wage rise as well.

 

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About Graham

Graham Tappenden is a British ex-pat who first came to Germany as a placement student in 1993, returning in 1995 to live there permanently. He has been writing for AllThingsGerman.net since 2006. When not writing blog posts or freelancing for the Oberurseler Woche and other publications he works as a self-employed IT consultant solving computer problems and designing websites. In 2016 he gained German citizenship.

Comments

  1. After all that the strike was called off. The railway and the union reached an agreement yesterday, it seems. Still, there was not enough time left to get all the trains to where they should be for this morning, so there were some delays anyway.

    This afternoon things were apparently back to normal.

  2. After all that the strike was called off. The railway and the union reached an agreement yesterday, it seems. Still, there was not enough time left to get all the trains to where they should be for this morning, so there were some delays anyway.

    This afternoon things were apparently back to normal.

  3. Hello, I have a question so hard for me but maybe not for you. I am living in China. I want to know which kinds of maintenance equipments for German high speed railway.I have searched for a long time on the internet,but just got a few informations.Can you help me?thank you so much!

  4. Hello, I have a question so hard for me but maybe not for you. I am living in China. I want to know which kinds of maintenance equipments for German high speed railway.I have searched for a long time on the internet,but just got a few informations.Can you help me?thank you so much!

  5. Hello, I have a question so hard for me but maybe not for you. I am living in China. I want to know which kinds of maintenance equipments for German high speed railway.I have searched for a long time on the internet,but just got a few informations.Can you help me?thank you so much!
    kevinzhangxl@yahoo.com.cn

  6. Hello, I have a question so hard for me but maybe not for you. I am living in China. I want to know which kinds of maintenance equipments for German high speed railway.I have searched for a long time on the internet,but just got a few informations.Can you help me?thank you so much!
    kevinzhangxl@yahoo.com.cn

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