GERMANY: Rail strikes hit Germany for second time in a week

Record ID: 338669

  • Title: GERMANY: Rail strikes hit Germany for second time in a week
  • Date: 18th October 2007
  • Summary: (W2) BERLIN, GERMANY (OCTOBER 18, 2007) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) NIGHT SHOT OF DESERTED TRAIN TRACKS AT "OSTKREUZ" S-BAHN COMMUTER TRAIN STATION AROUND 6 A.M. (0400 GMT) COMMUTERS ON PLATFORM FRONT OF TRAIN READING "S7 POTSDAM" WIDE OF S-BAHN EMPTY TRACKS SIGN FOR S7 S-BAHN READING "IRREGULAR TRAIN SERVICE" WIDE OF PEOPLE ON PLATFORM, EMPTY TRACKS PAN ACROSS DESERTED TRACK
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Employment,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVABIDZQI6CJM1S4YQVJMIT803VH
  • Story Text: German commuters struggled with major disruptions on Thursday (October 18) as train drivers went on strike for a second time in the week to back pay demands.
    At 2 a.m. (midnight GMT on Wednesday) drivers' union GDL began walkouts on regional services across Germany, intensifying a dispute with rail operator Deutsche Bahn that has dragged on for months. The strike is due to end at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT).
    As the morning rush hour was getting underway, only around 50 percent of the regional and urban "S-Bahn" commuter trains were in service across the country, Deutsche Bahn passenger service chief Karl-Friedrich Rausch told reporters in Berlin.
    An unidentified rail passenger in Munich indicated that he had sympathy for the strikers, saying companies were making hugh profits yet employees were not receiving much benefit from an economic upswing. But he said the duration of the strikes "is slowly getting on my nerves."
    GDL issued a joint statement along with its French counterpart FGAAC justifying both the GDL's wage demands and the FGAAC's refusal to allow its pension privileges to be scrapped. Transport workers in France were also striking on Thursday.
    Deutsche Bahn made the drivers a fifth pay offer on Monday, including a one-off payment of 2,000 euros (2,837 U.S. dollars) and a rise in monthly wages of up to 10 percent, but the GDL rejected the proposal.
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