Many of Germany's train drivers staged a 24-hour strike on Tuesday in the latest installment of a long-running and bitter dispute over working hours with the country's main railway operator, while a walkout by cabin crew at Lufthansa added to disruptions for travelers. The GDL union called on drivers of state-owned Deutsche Bahn's passenger trains to walk out starting at 2 a.m. It called the strike only on Sunday evening, making good on an announcement last week that it would no longer give 48 hours' notice. The main sticking point in the dispute is GDL’s demand for working hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 hours per week without a pay cut.
Members of a union representing German train drivers have voted overwhelmingly to stage open-ended strikes in a bitter dispute with the main national railway operator over working hours and pay, union leaders said Tuesday. The GDL union said that 97% of members who voted in a ballot authorized fully fledged strikes at state-owned Deutsche Bahn, easily beating the 75% approval required. GDL already has staged two one-day “warning strikes," a common tactic in German wage negotiations.