The strike has hit the east of the country particularly hard. In that region, many more train drivers are organized in the Deutsche Lokomotivführer (GDL) union. According to a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn in Berlin: “Only about 15 percent of regional trains were operative in the states of former East Germany.”

Some 50 percent of regional trains were operative in the west of the country, but this was largely due to an emergency schedule implemented by the DB management.

The responsibility for the intensification of the dispute lies squarely with the executive committee of Deutsche Bahn, which has repeatedly refused to make a new offer, insisting that train drivers accept a deal already agreed to by the rail unions Transnet and GDBA. This sellout involves a wage increase of just 4.5 percent, plus a single payment of 600 euros.

Such an agreement for the train drivers would mean a net decline in real wages, since their wages have stagnated for years and actually dropped by 10 percent over the past two years. At the same time, the drivers’ workload has risen enormously.

The GDL’s demand for a starting salary of 2,500 euros gross, rising over a long period to 3,000 euros, together with a reduction in the work week from 41 to 40 hours, is entirely justified. The claim that such an increase exceeds the budget of the railways is false.

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