OREANDA-NEWS. The German driver's union GDL started another strike on passenger trains on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, September 2, which was the third since the beginning of August. This strike will be the longest in the last series of strikes and will last more than 5 days. It, like the previous ones, should significantly limit passenger rail transport in the country. In the field of freight transportation, the strike began in the middle of the day on September 1.

At the same time, the railway concern Deutsche Bahn believes that it is able to save about 25 percent of long-distance flights and 40 percent of commuter trains and city commuter trains during the current shutdown of drivers.

In early June, GDL announced the failure of several months of negotiations on improving working conditions. Deutsche Bahn, which suffered, in particular, from the crisis associated with the coronavirus pandemic and from the flood, offered GDL a salary increase in two stages: by 1.5% from January 1,2022 and by 1.7% from March 1,2023. However, the union considered these conditions insufficient.

On Wednesday, Deutsche Bahn put forward new proposals to the union in the hope of preventing a strike: a gradual increase in wages by 3.2%, a one-time payment of «crown bonuses» in the amount of up to 600 euros and a reduction in the validity of the tariff agreement from 40 months to 36. However, as of Thursday morning, the union rejected this proposal and announced the start of a strike.