AP Features, August 6th, 2007
Travelers in Germany faced the prospect of long delays at train stations and airports after unions authorized more walkouts Monday at state railway Deutsche Bahn AG and budget airline LTU.
The decision by GDL, the union representing Deutsche Bahn's train drivers, and Cockpit, which counts pilots at LTU as members, came in the middle of Germany's summer vacation season.
GDL said that nearly 96 percent of members who voted agreed to strikes at the railways. Later Monday, union leaders decided to start with a strike on freight traffic on Thursday.
"We hope that we can bring the employers to reason with this limited strike," GDL chairman Manfred Schell said.
The union said that the choice of its first target was meant to show travelers that the strike was not aimed at them _ but warned that passenger trains might be delayed.
The government, which has labored to restore optimism among the 82 million residents of Europe's biggest economy, said it was still hopeful that a train walkout could be avoided.
"We are expecting the parties to undertake the greatest efforts to get back at the negotiating table," said Alexandra Dittmann, a spokeswoman for Germany's Transport Ministry.
Deutsche Bahn had offered a 4.5 percent salary increase _ matching the raise it already has agreed to give railway workers represented by two other unions.
However, GDL _ which has some 12,000 members _ wants raises of up to 31 percent and says the starting monthly salary for drivers should be raised 27 percent, from 1,970 euros to 2,500 euros (about $2,697 to $3,423).
The railway has contingency plans in place to use employees who are licensed to drive trains, along with civil servants who are bound by law not to strike, to try to keep service running at between 50 percent and 60 percent of capacity.
The airline pilots' union, Cockpit, said Monday that it would organize strikes at low-cost airline LTU after 96 percent of its members agreed on more walkouts. Earlier Monday, pilots with LTU and rival carrier dba staged a two-hour warning strike that resulted in delayed flights.
LTU pilots want a 6 percent pay raise, twice what the company has offered. LTU is being courted by rival Air Berlin PLC, which bought dba last year.
The upturn in Germany's economy after years of stagnation has led to calls from many unions for big wage increases.
The country's largest industrial union, IG Metall, has secured an increase of 4.1 percent this year and another 1.7 percent next year for German manufacturing workers. It went into talks demanding a 6.5 percent raise.
Such agreements have historically unsettled the European Central Bank, which sees them as risks to containing inflation, which it counters by raising interest rates. The bank is expected to lift its benchmark rate to 4.25 percent when it meets in September.
Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
