On Tuesday, train passengers on several routes in and around Stuttgart were affected by warning strikes announced at short notice by the Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL). According to the Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-GmbH (SWEG), trains were canceled on the routes from Stuttgart via Mühlacker to Pforzheim, from Stuttgart via Bruchsal to Heidelberg and between Tübingen and Heilbronn. The company operates regional trains in the Ortenau and Breisgau, among other places. The walkout was to last from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In addition, the GDL had announced that it would initiate a ballot in the current week in order to expand the labor dispute. Almost two weeks ago, a first warning strike – at that time only in the morning – led to some failures.
A warning strike by the GDL in Baden-Württemberg had already affected regional transport on September 8th. At SWEG, there were only isolated strike-related failures, as the company had announced. At SBS, the former Abellio Rail Baden-Württemberg railway company, 16 percent of the daily kilometers were not offered in the Stuttgart network.
The background is a conflict between GDL and SWEG: the engine drivers’ union insists on negotiating a collective agreement not only for the subsidiary SBS with its 350 employees, but for all 1800 employees of SWEG. However, the employer side has so far rejected this. The demands of the GDL also include a one-time payment of 3000 euros.
The SBS had previously announced salary increases. Irrespective of the negotiations with the GDL, the employees will receive an increase of 4.8 percent in the monthly table fees retroactively to the beginning of the year, as the company announced on Monday. In addition, there would be increases in allowances for working at night, on Sundays and public holidays.
Communication GDL
