German trade unions plan strikes at Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa
Published: Monday, Mar 4th 2024, 15:20
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From Thursday morning, thousands of Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa employees have been called out on strike. Due to the rail strike in Germany, SBB recommends postponing travel to the neighboring country.
Numerous trains and flights are at risk of being canceled, as previous rounds of strikes have already shown. Behind this are the German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) with its chairman Claus Weselsky and the service union Verdi.
According to an initial estimate by the Lufthansa Group, around 200,000 passengers will be affected on the two strike days announced by Verdi on Thursday and Friday. This indicates that, as with two previous strike waves, around 1,000 flights per day will be canceled and only around a tenth of the original offer can be flown.
Due to the simultaneous train drivers' strike, there will also be no option to switch to rail for shorter journeys. At Deutsche Bahn, the strike on long-distance and regional services will begin at 02:00 on Thursday morning and will once again lead to considerable restrictions for millions of travelers.
According to the GDL, the strike is set to last until Friday at 13:00. But even after that, it is likely to be some time before all trains are running again as usual. In freight transport, the industrial action will begin on Wednesday evening at 18:00 and is scheduled to last until Friday at 05:00.
SBB advises to postpone trips
According to SBB, the effects of the rail strike in Germany are still unclear at the moment. On the Swiss section of the route, the majority of the canceled cross-border connections will be replaced by replacement trains so that domestic traffic is not affected as far as possible, as SBB announced on Monday. The online timetable will be adjusted.
SBB recommends postponing journeys to or through Germany to another time. As part of a special goodwill gesture by Deutsche Bahn, travelers have the option of postponing their journey and using their ticket earlier or later.
Further strikes possible
There is a possibility that the employees of the private aviation security companies at the larger German airports will also join the Lufthansa colleagues' warning strike.
If there is a lack of staff at passenger and baggage checkpoints, no passengers can enter the security area of airports. Employees in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hanover, Stuttgart, Erfurt and Dresden took part in the first warning strike on February 1.
Railroad relies on "wave strikes"
Deutsche Bahn customers will also have a lot to contend with in the coming weeks. GDL boss Weselsky no longer wants to announce strikes around 48 hours in advance, as was the case recently. "We will start so-called wave strikes," he said on Monday. He also did not rule out strikes during the upcoming Easter traffic.
It is also very likely that the so-called emergency timetable will not be possible. Deutsche Bahn has always drawn up such a hull timetable during previous industrial disputes in the ongoing wage dispute in order to maintain at least a limited service. So far, around 20 percent of long-distance trains have always been running. The impact on regional services varied depending on the region.
Negotiations without success
The crux of the wage dispute, which has been smouldering for months, is the GDL's demand for a reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours without financial losses. Both sides have been meeting behind closed doors for almost four weeks to find a compromise, so far without success. Last Thursday, Deutsche Bahn announced that the negotiations had failed again.
It is still unclear how the dispute will continue. On Monday, Weselsky once again ruled out formal arbitration, as recently called for by the passenger association Pro Bahn. It is not foreseeable that both sides will return to the negotiating table in the near future.
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