A Frankfurt labor court rejected a request to block another strike by a small, but influential train driver union this week, dismissing a case filed by German railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG.
The tribunal late on March 11 ruled that the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer union could go ahead with the action. Deutsche Bahn in January had already lost a similar bid in the labor courts.
Germany is braced for another wave of travel disruptions after unions representing cabin crew and train drivers announced more walkouts, adding to a string of travel chaos that hit Europe’s largest economy over the past months. Train drivers operating cargo trains are striking from the evening of March 11 until the evening of March 12, and on passenger trains on March 12 through early March 13.
It’s their sixth walkout in a fierce dispute over wages and working hours and coincides with a separate two-day strike by Deutsche Lufthansa AG cabin crew. Travelers faced delayed and canceled connections in Germany last week amid separate labor actions by Lufthansa ground crew and Deutsche Bahn train drivers. Several European Central Bank Governing Council members attended March 10’s monetary policy meeting in Frankfurt remotely because of the strikes.
