Due to a warning strike by the GDL railway union, many trains were canceled, especially in the regions of Hanover, Bremen and East Westphalia as well as in Saxony.
“Almost nothing runs,” said a spokesman for NordWestBahn, which operates the Hanover S-Bahn and the Regio-S-Bahn in Bremen. According to GDL, eleven lines from the Transdev group were affected in North Rhine-Westphalia alone, including the NordWestBahn with a focus on Paderborn and Bielefeld and the Rhine-Ruhr Railway on the Lower Rhine. In Saxony, regional trains between Leipzig and Chemnitz as well as Dresden and Zwickau were affected, among others. In some cases, replacement bus services were set up.
The background to the action, which lasted until 2:30 p.m., is a collective bargaining dispute between the GDL and Transdev. According to the GDL, employers recently offered a wage increase of eleven percent over a period of two years. The union is demanding a wage increase of 555 euros for a period of one year and a reduction in weekly working hours.
At the market leader Deutsche Bahn, collective bargaining negotiations with the GDL are still pending. The first hearing date is November 9th. GDL boss Claus Weselsky doesn’t want to spend much time on warning strikes and instead wants the members to vote quickly on indefinite strikes. Accordingly, there could also be work stoppages during Christmas traffic.
