There is no end in sight to the strike by Eastern European truck drivers at the Gräfenhausen service area – and no space in the parking lot either. The west parking lot is now closed to trucks. The police estimated the number of trucks that had gathered for a makeshift strike camp on Gräfenhagen West and East squares on Friday at 130.
Drivers from Georgia, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian republics assumed that almost 200 drivers could now be on strike, as there were also actions in two other parking lots.
Drivers want to claim outstanding wages
With the industrial action, the men, who are all on the road for the same Polish freight forwarder on German autobahns, want to demand outstanding wages. Some of them state that they have received food subsidies at most for the past five months. The first drivers showed up last Tuesday in Gräfenhausen, where a strike by drivers from the same trucking company that lasted several weeks made national headlines in April.
At first it looked last week as if the conflict could be resolved quickly this time: Several drivers were able to have their wages transferred in individual negotiations and returned their trucks. They then left the parking lot. As a gesture of goodwill, the constantly growing group of drivers who had joined the company also handed over several vehicles to the forwarding agency for onward transport. But the talks falter. “There have been no new transfers since Monday,” said Anna Weirich from the “Fair Mobility” advisory network.
