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Berlin (German news agency) – Secretary of State for Transport Michael Theurer (FDP), who is also the Federal Government Commissioner for Rail Transport, has called on the parties in the tariff dispute at the railways to moderate. “I appeal to the collective bargaining parties to avoid traffic chaos,” he told the “Tagesspiegel” (Friday edition).
“The wage dispute should not be at the expense of the population.” After the railway union EVG had announced a large-scale warning strike between Sunday evening at 10 p.m. and Tuesday evening at midnight, Deutsche Bahn announced on Thursday that it would completely stop long-distance traffic for the same period. Theurer now said that all sides were “requested to act according to their responsibility”. In order to keep the restrictions as low as possible, Deutsche Bahn and the local transport companies would now have to take “appropriate precautions at an early stage”.
“Infrastructure is central to the functioning of our economy,” said the FDP politician. His party colleague Reinhard Houben, who is economic policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, was even more critical of the union’s announcement: “Even high inflation and increased energy prices do not justify the demands made by the EVG.” In his opinion, collective bargaining “cannot be conducted free of any proportionality”. After all, Deutsche Bahn’s offer to its employees “is something to be proud of,” Houben told the “Tagesspiegel”.
“All the less justified are renewed warning strikes, which paralyze passenger and freight traffic for several days and have massive effects on the whole of Europe.”