The German Union of Locomotive Drivers (GDL) called for a 35-hour strike in protest of the ongoing negotiations with Deutsche Bahn for a new collective bargaining agreement. For the rail freight industry, the initiative will start on Wednesday, 6 March at 6 pm and last until Friday, 8 March at 5 am.

The choice of a 35-hour strike is not casual, as one of the main requests of the union is to reduce weekly working hours from 38 to 35. “For this reason, the GDL will remind DB management of this number – over and over again if necessary”, the union stated. This new strike is a consequence of yet another failure in the negotiations between GDL and DB. “DB assumes that the GDL strike will have a massive impact on rail operations”, the company underlined. They are criticising the fact that the call for a strike did not come with a 48 hours notice.

GDL mentioned that the halt to the latest negotiations round, which occurred at the end of last week, was caused by DB leaking confidential information to German media BILD. On the other hand, DB is accusing the union of letting negotiations collapse. Consultations between the parties have been ongoing since November 2023, with four strike sessions already in the books. DB also tried to take legal action against GDL in two different courts, which both ruled against the German company.

Also read:

• GDL sends proposal to DB to end strike and resume negotiations
• DB vs GDL: strike ends, negotiations to resume
• The 2024 German federal budget could cut 252 million from rail freight