Deutsche Bahn takes legal action to halt renewed labour strike

Germany's state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn has applied for an injunction at Frankfurt's labour court in a bid to stop a renewed strike by train drivers' union GDL, the company said on Monday.

"Deutsche Bahn (DB) has criticized the GDL's actions in the strongest possible terms and has now filed a legal appeal to stop the strike," the company said.

"DB filed an urgent application for a temporary injunction with the Frankfurt am Main Labour Court this morning," it added.

On Sunday, the GDL called for a strike affecting long-distance, regional and freight transport for 24 hours.

In passenger transport, the strike is to begin on Tuesday at 2 am (0100 GMT) and last for 24 hours. The strike in freight transport is set to begin on Monday at 6 pm.

Deutsche Bahn criticized the "far too short lead time of only 22 hours," saying this is a "sheer imposition" for passengers.

It is the sixth strike in a months-long wage dispute between the state-owned rail operator and the GDL union and comes just days after the last industrial action.

The sticking point between the two continues to be the GDL's core demand for a reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35, with full wage compensation.

In the current dispute, Deutsche Bahn has already tried to legally prevent industrial action by the GDL, but without success.

Union leader Claus Weselsky had already announced before the previous strike that the railway and passengers would be given significantly less time to prepare for industrial action in future.

The operator called on the union to resume negotiations on Friday. The GDL had expressed its willingness to meet again on Monday, provided that the railway submitted a new offer by its Sunday evening deadline at 6 pm.

However, Deutsche Bahn did not respond to this demand "inevitably forcing the GDL to continue the dispute, to the chagrin of DB customers," the union said.

Deutsche Bahn had merely renewed its offer to the union to resume collective bargaining on Monday, saying offers and solutions could be submitted and discussed directly at the negotiating table, the company said on Sunday afternoon.

So far, mediators have proposed a reduction in weekly working hours - a sticking point in the deadlocked negotiations - in two stages from 38 to 36 hours with full pay compensation by 2028, but the union has not accepted the proposal.

The latest walkout comes after the union staged a 35-hour strike in passenger transport on Thursday and Friday, while a strike in freight transport began on Wednesday and ended on Friday.

Germany's chemical industry is warning of the economic consequences of the repeated strikes by the train drivers' union.

"Such actions will put a further heavy burden on Germany's already ailing economy. We simply can no longer afford a standstill on the railways," Wolfgang Große Entrup, head of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), told dpa on Monday.

He appealed to those involved to "finally find a workable compromise after months of negotiations."

Meanwhile, renewed strikes by Lufthansa flight attendants are expected to lead to the cancellation of a total of 1,000 flights on Tuesday and Wednesday at Germany's Frankfurt and Munich airports, the national carrier said on Monday.

Amid the industrial action over wage negotiations set to begin on Tuesday morning, 600 flights are expected to be cancelled in Frankfurt, Germany's busiest airport, while on Wednesday 400 connections are set to be scrapped in Munich, another important travel hub.

Some 120,000 passengers will be affected, a Lufthansa spokesman said.

The Ufo union, which represents cabin crew at the carrier, had called on some 19,000 flight attendants at Lufthansa and subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine to strike at Frankfurt on Tuesday and Munich on Wednesday, with the action to last from 4 am to 11 pm (0300-2200 GMT).

Ufo is demanding 15% more pay for the approximately 18,000 cabin crew at Lufthansa and the almost 1,000 CityLine employees, with a contract term of 18 months. The union also wants a one-time inflation adjustment payment of €3,000 ($3,200) and higher bonuses.