German drivers parked their trains on Friday morning after a labor court ruled they could strike on local and regional train routes. Though the ruling forbade strikes on long-distance and high-speed trains in the country, it still left hundreds of thousands of commuters and tourists stranded.
DPA Humans weren't the only ones left stranded by the train drivers' strike on Friday. Here, the bulldog "Dolly" waits at Hamburg's Altona station, wondering if the next train will ever come.
German train drivers walked off the job on Friday morning in the wake of a court ruling that gave the green light for a limited strike on local and regional trains. Friday's strike lasted from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and left tens of thousands of commuters stranded across the country.
All of Germany was affected by the strikes. In Stuttgart some local trains were completely removed from the schedule. Around 330,000 passengers travel the S-Bahn in the larger area of Stuttgart each day. The long-distance connection between Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Munich was postponed.
Hamburg was also hit hard, with many commuters opting to take the bus rather than wait in long lines at S-Bahn stops. Bavaria saw the loss of one of two regional and local trains, the former running every two hours and the latter at 40 to 60 minute intervals. An emergency plan was put into effect at 4 a.m. in the capital of Berlin, where fewer than 60 percent of the trains were running. Some lines were running at regular 20 minute intervals and others at 60.
Court Decision
The legality of the strike was determined at a labor court in the eastern German city of Chemnitz, which issued its ruling at 2 a.m. on Friday morning, permitting the German train drivers union GDL to go forward with a strike on local and regional trains nationwide. Long-distance trains, including the country's intercity and ICE high-speed rail networks, and freight transports, the court decided, were forbidden from participating in the strike.
The leading judge in the case said the court had sought to find a balance between supporting the right of the train drivers to strike while minimizing the economic damage. In the run-up to the work stoppage, German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee warned in SPIEGEL that "a strike could have a devastating effect on the economy and the current economic growth."
PHOTO GALLERY: TRAIN STRIKES STRAND THOUSANDS IN GERMANY
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Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned train system challenging the GDL in the labor dispute over wages and tariffs, decided ahead of the decision -- and in preparation for a broader strike -- to cancel one-third of its long-distance trains. It had also prepared an emergency plan to keep the nation's trains running on a pared-down schedule. Spokesperson Gunnar Meyer said Deutsche Bahn planned to keep half of the country's 19,000 regional trains running by using non-GDL drivers.
GDL union boss Manfred Schell has been locking horns for months with Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn now on the issue, with neither side ready to come to a final agreement. And on Thursday, Schell challenged Deutsche Bahn to reassess its position and come up with a new offer for train drivers by the beginning of next week.
Schell is demanding a 31 percent pay increase to bring train drivers up to the levels his union claims its European counterparts are paid. "If they are not able to do this," Schell said, "then they have to be prepared for further labor disputes." Currently, starting train drivers with Deutsche Bahn earn €1,970 ($2,781) per month, but the union is demanding a beginning wage of €2,500. The union also wants to have its own tariff agreements with the passenger rail and logistics company.
Deutsche Bahn has refused to meet that demand, but has repeated its offer for GDL to join in with the agreement that it made in July with the Transnet and GDBA railway workers unions that Schell had turned down at that time. However, Deutsche Bahn made a new offer last week after lengthy negotiations with Schell: Drivers were offered a 5 percent wage increase if they were willing to work two more hours per week. And train drivers willing to work even longer hours could get an increase of up to 9.5 percent, paid out in the form of wages and overtime bonuses. But Schell rejected the offer out of hand.
On the eve of the strike, Deutsche Bahn issued a statement criticizing Schell's recent verbal affronts against the national railway, saying that he appeared to be "losing touch with reality." Deutsche Bahn estimates that the strike on local and regional trains and the loss of passengers is costing the company €1 million a day in lost revenues.
GDL said Friday that if it doesn't reach a deal with Deutsch Bahn, the strike could resume on Monday.
rjm/reuters
On Friday morning, commuters and travelers in Germany were forced to find alternative methods of transportation as train drivers walked off the job. Between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. Friday morning, a German court gave the authorization for a strike. The strike was permitted only for drivers of local and regional trains. Drivers of long-distance and intercity trains, ICE high-speed rail networks and freight transports were forbidden from participating due to possible impact on the German economy.

Germany's public workers' union is demanding a 31 percent wage increase that would put the German train drivers' wages equal with their counterparts in other European countries. Currently, starting drivers earn €1,970 per month. The union is pushing for a pay increase of €2,500 per month for starting drivers.

The Deutsche Bahn, Germany's government-owned train system, has so far refused to increase the drivers' wages. They have, however, offered to give train drivers a five percent pay increase if the drivers are willing to work two extra hours every week. The offer also stated that if the train drivers are willing to work even more hours per week, they could be eligible for a pay increase of up to 9.5 percent.

The union has also demanded equal pay for drivers in former East Germany. Georg Milbradt, chief negotiator for Germany's state governments, said that giving equal wages to the drivers in former East Germany would be extremely difficult.