The start of the strike of German locomotive drivers at the same time as the farmers’ protests continue

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting According to the “New Zurich Zeitung” newspaper, train drivers in Germany have started a massive strike since Wednesday morning.

The strike of the German Locomotive Union GDL has started in the transportation of goods and passengers. has been Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) has announced a severely restricted emergency schedule starting Wednesday morning at 2 a.m., Deutsche Bahn announced overnight.

According to information from the Swiss national railway company SBB, the strike in Germany will also lead to the cancellation of many cross-border passenger trains. As SBB announced on Tuesday, the canceled connections in the Swiss sections will be replaced by another route. The restrictions are expected to last from 2am on Wednesday to 6pm on Friday. Night trains traveling to Germany are also affected.

SBB advised that journeys to or through Germany be postponed. Thanks to Deutsche Bahn’s special measures, passengers will have the opportunity to postpone their trip and use the ticket sooner or later.

In this way, after Over the Christmas break, the GDL train drivers’ union is on strike from Wednesday to Friday, when heavy disruption is expected on the roads due to farmers’ protests. In the shadow of these strikes, only one out of every five trains will run.

Klaus Weselsky, head of the GDL train drivers’ union, expressed his organization’s desire to continue the collective bargaining dispute with Deutsche Bahn has emphasized with the strike. “If nothing is achieved by Friday, we will take a break and then start the next strike,” Veselski told the ZDF morning magazine on Wednesday after the start of the train drivers’ strike. He criticized the railway’s latest proposal, calling it provocative.

In addition to more money, GDL is also demanding reduced hours for full-paid shift workers. Veselski also mentioned collective bargaining agreements with other railway companies and said: They are willing to compromise here and gradually reduce working hours.

Due to the strike of the train drivers, the German railway has faced serious disruptions in passenger traffic since early this morning. Deutsche Bahn announced that the emergency timetable had started as planned. According to the company, about one out of every five trains is used in long-distance transportation. The German train drivers’ union also announced that there are extensive restrictions on regional transport that vary greatly from region to region. The Transdev company, which is responsible for the launch of regional trains in the North-West and East, is also on strike.

GDL’s strike in Deutsche Bahn freight transportation started on Tuesday evening. became. Until recently, the railways and Transdef were trying to legally prevent the strike.

Deutsche Bahn announced an emergency timetable for Wednesday to Friday with very limited services. did For these journeys, DB uses longer trains with more seats to get as many people to their destinations as possible. However, order and prevention of chaos cannot be guaranteed. The company has announced that at the same time, the railway wants to deal with the strike legally. Lead in transport in Germany. Rallies and blocking of highway entrances have been announced – this could be a tough day for commuters in some places.

This rail strike is the third and longest ever in The dispute is a collective agreement between the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn. The Transdev railway company is also on strike.

German Railways asked GDL to return to the negotiating table on Tuesday evening. German Transport Minister Volker Wissing also asked both sides to negotiate. The German official told Bild newspaper: “There must be a way that both sides can come to terms with. To do this, we have to work with each other. Let’s talk.”

GDL boss Klaus Weselski, however, stressed that it was up to the railways to come up with an improved offer. The 64-year-old man clarified: “The question of shortening the strike is not negotiable.” has done. At the heart of the current collective bargaining dispute is the union’s demand to reduce shift workers’ weekly working hours from 38 to 35.

German Railways considers this requirement untenable . He is only willing to talk to the union about expanding existing working time models.

In the current tariff debate, the GDL has already called for warning strikes twice, But these strikes lasted a maximum of 24 hours in passenger transportation. In December, the union allowed its members to vote on unlimited strikes. About 97% of the participants agreed with this. Since then, longer strikes have been possible.

These strikes also affect long-distance rail transport in Austria, causing disruptions in train movements in This country creates.

At the same time, farmers are continuing their protests in several regions on Wednesday in protest against the government’s plan to remove diesel benefits.

In the continuation of these protests that started on Monday and are still going on, the farmers of Rhineland-Palatinate protesting against the planned reduction of agricultural subsidies headed towards the state parliament in Mainz. They marched. More than a thousand farmers are expected to participate in the march on Wednesday in the capital of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin and Brandenburg and some other states were held and caused disturbances. It still adheres to the advancement of these policies.

Regarding the continuous protests of farmers, the Federal Minister of Agriculture Jem Özdemir warned about the increasing poisoning of the social atmosphere in Germany and said: Rural people feel left behind. “They worry about being left out in a politics that is increasingly dominated by urbanites,” he added. “This is a dangerous divide that could lead to a situation like the United States, where people no longer talk to each other, no longer believe each other, and blame each other for all the evils of the world. The goal should be Keep the country in balance so that we can stay together.

Ozdemir, in a discussion of citizens in Erlenbach near Heilbronn, cited decades of incorrect agricultural policy as the reason for the protests. The oil minister said. : I believe that agricultural diesel is actually a metaphor for dissatisfaction that is not only related to the last two years of my presidency. farmers in Germany.

Demonstrators welcomed Özdemir in Erlenbach with a concert and loud whistles and expressed their dissatisfaction with the federal government’s austerity programs. Citizens’ Dialogue participated with the Green Party in the State Parliament.

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