Berlin (dpa) – Germany‘s rail company Deutsche Bahn attempted Thursday to avert a planned four-day train strike in the country by reopening talks with union leaders.
“Yes, we are talking; we are in contact,” said Deutsche Bahn personnel director Ulrich Weber.
“We will do our best not to close off the channels of communications before we have a result,” he added.
Weber declined to provide any details of the talks, which followed a call from the GDL train drivers‘ union on Wednesday for members to walk off the job for 100 hours or four days after Deutsche Bahn rejected demands from the workers.
This includes a call for shorter working hours and a 5-per-cent salary increase for some of its members.
German industry condemned the plans by train drivers to mount what would be the biggest strike ever faced by Deutsche Bahn since the rail company was founded in 1994.
“A long rail strike is likely to be a brake on the economy,” said Martin Wansleben, the head of the German Chamber of Trade and Industry (DIHK).
“After several days of industrial action, the combined impact of transport service cancellations, delays in deliveries and working time lost will quickly add up to a half a billion-euro damage bill for the German economy,” Wansleben told the daily Bild.
The GDL train drivers‘ union had so far not set any details of their plans for their members to walk off the job.
This would be the seventh walkout by train drivers since September.
The train drivers pulled out of a four-day strike it launched in November by returning to work a day earlier than planned.
http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/1st-leadgerman-industry-attacks-unions-four-day-train-strike-planby-andrew-mccathie-dpa_378601.html