2007 German National Rail Strike - The Strike

The Strike

GDL announced that the strike against freight service would begin at noon Central European Time (CET) on November 14, while the strike against local and long-distance passenger trains would start at 2:00 a.m. CET on November 15. The union said the walkout would end at 2:00 a.m. CET on November 17, 2007.

Both strikes began on schedule.

Chancellor Merkel, adhering to the federal government's tradition of not intervening in labor disputes, declined to intervene. But other federal government officials pleaded for the resumption of negotiations. Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said ministry officials were working behind the scenes to mediate the dispute.

As anticipated, the strike affected train service nationwide. However, the company brought in 1,000 managers and other employees to keep trains running. Still, more than 40 percent of all freight trains were halted. While 50 percent of regional passenger trains in western Germany were running, only one in 10 regional passenger trains operated in eastern Germany. Disruptions in local service varied. In Berlin and Munich, commuter service was only minimally interrupted, but by the end of the day only a third of all trains had run. But in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, major cutbacks in train schedules occurred. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, trains ran every hour. Two-thirds of the country's high-speed InterCityExpress trains were running normally.

The economic impact of the strike appeared to be heavy. Deutsche Bahn said the strike cost it €50 million ($73 million) a day. Automobile manufacturers, which depended heavily on trains for moving vehicles, found inventories backing up immediately. Audi shuttered at least one plant in order prevent an additional backlog from occurring. Seaports, especially Hamburg, were clogged with containers. Germany's steel industry, which transports half its goods by rail, was also badly affected. Federal officials expressed public concern that the strike could affect the economy, which had slowed in recent months

Public support for the strike was relatively strong. Unscientific polls of commuters by newspapers and television stations showed support for the train drivers. A scientific poll conducted by Infratest Dimap for the public-service broadcaster ARD found that 61 percent of the people support the workers. Of 1,003 people surveyed, 47 percent said Deutsche Bahn was to blame for the strike, while only 25 percent fingered GDL. Nevertheless, the ARD poll found that public support for the union had slipped by five percentage points since mid-October. A second poll for the public opinion company Forsa for the newspaper Bild showed only 45 percent of the public supported GDL.

As the strike neared its conclusion, GDL Chairman Schell said he was open to a 31 percent pay increase without a separate collective bargaining agreement. Other union leaders suggested that the union might even accept a pay raise as low as 15 percent.

But Schell and other union officials reiterated their determination to win the labor dispute. Schell announced that the union might engage in a new, open-ended strike if no new offer was forthcoming from the employer. One report suggested that the union might extend its current strike through Christmas.

Deutsche Bahn did not take such threats lightly. It advertised throughout Europe for new train drivers. The company received 5,000 applications, and hired 1,000 new drivers. Deutsche Bahn said the newly hired locomotive engineers would be used to meet increases in demand, and not to help break any future strike.