A third of long-distance trains are canceled on Monday

Berlin The planned 50-hour warning strike on the railways has surprisingly been called off. Deutsche Bahn and the railway and transport union (EVG) agreed to a settlement before the labor court in Frankfurt am Main, as both sides and the court announced on Saturday. “Against this background, we have suspended the strike at DB AG for the time being,” said the EVG. Hessischer Rundfunk had previously reported on the agreement.

The warning strike would have led to a two-day standstill in long-distance traffic on Monday and Tuesday, and hardly a train would have been able to run in regional and freight traffic either.

Despite the cancellation of the warning strike, numerous regional and long-distance trains of Deutsche Bahn will be canceled at the beginning of the week. Around two-thirds of the planned long-distance trains will run on Monday, DB announced on Sunday. There were also “individual train cancellations” on Sunday evening. “From Tuesday, all ICE and IC trains will be back on the road as planned,” announced the state-owned group.

A third of the long-distance trains are canceled on Monday

For regional traffic, DB generally spoke of “restrictions and cancellations” that could be expected regionally on Monday and Tuesday. There are also foreseeable restrictions in freight traffic on these two days.

Since the warning strike was only canceled at Deutsche Bahn, some private rail company connections will also be canceled on Monday and Tuesday. In Bavaria, for example, the Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB), the Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB) and the Meridian are affected, as the railway and transport union EVG announced. The EVG is currently negotiating new collective agreements with dozens of railway companies.

After the short-term cancellation of the 50-hour warning strike, rail operations had to be reorganized from shutting down to ramping up within 24 hours, DB said. “Since yesterday, around 50,000 long-distance and local train journeys alone as well as the associated shift and deployment plans have been rescheduled. Vehicles have to be rescheduled and some of them have to be taken to new departure points,” it said.

Even after the cancellation of the warning strike, Deutsche Bahn enables travelers to use their tickets already purchased for Monday and Tuesday on Sunday. “Our goodwill arrangement remains in place,” the group announced online. If trains booked for Monday or Tuesday are canceled, the usual passenger rights also apply – these allow, among other things, to catch up on the journey later. However, since the railways are assuming very full trains from Wednesday to the weekend in view of the Ascension Day holiday on Thursday (May 18), they advise moving the trips forward.

The warning strike announced on Thursday morning brought plenty of movement into the talks between EVG and DB. Deutsche Bahn tried aggressively to prevent the walkout. However, an attempt to negotiate failed on Thursday evening, and on Friday afternoon an ultimatum from the EVG for a new offer from DB expired.

The sticking point in the ongoing collective bargaining conflict is the issue of the minimum wage

In the next step, the group went before the labor court in Frankfurt am Main and filed an urgent application to avert the warning strike with an injunction to cease and desist. DB rated the planned walkout as “disproportionate”, it harmed customers and “uninvolved third parties”. The court debated for almost four hours on Saturday before both sides agreed to the settlement.

“The way Deutsche Bahn went to the labor court was worth it for everyone,” said DB HR Director Martin Seiler, according to the announcement. With the settlement, both sides also agreed, according to DB, “to negotiate quickly and constructively, with the goal of an early conclusion”.

A sticking point in the ongoing collective bargaining conflict is the issue of the minimum wage, which, according to both sides, also took up a lot of space in court. Around 2,000 employees currently only receive the statutory minimum wage of 12 euros through allowances. The EVG has made it a prerequisite for all further negotiations that this minimum wage is first included in the tariff tables. She wants to ensure that these 12 euros per hour form the basis for all further negotiation results.

Initially, Deutsche Bahn did not want to meet any preconditions before the actual negotiations. In the meantime, however, she has agreed to include the minimum wage in the tariff tables in advance. Most recently, there was still a dispute as to whether future negotiation results should also be written one-to-one for the lowest wage groups in the tables or paid out differently, for example in the form of bonuses. At this point, Deutsche Bahn argues that the usual industry wages, for example for security and cleaning staff, would be far exceeded. The EVG therefore stuck to its warning strike plans – at least until the court hearing on Saturday.

The current bargaining round affects 230,000 employees, 180,000 of whom work for Deutsche Bahn. The dispute over the minimum wage affects just one percent of the people for whom negotiations are taking place overall. For the union, however, this point is crucial – they want to strengthen employees with low wages disproportionately with a view to inflation. In addition, the aim should also be to gain new members in these wage groups or these sectors through their commitment.

The fact that the lower wage groups are to be strengthened disproportionately is also shown by the main demand made of the industry, which focuses on a high fixed amount: the union wants to achieve 650 euros more per month for employees at the 50 railway companies, only at the She asks for percentages on top incomes, specifically 12 percent. According to the union, the term should be 12 months.

Deutsche Bahn has recently promised tax- and duty-free one-off payments totaling 2850 euros and gradual increases of 10 percent for the lower and middle income groups and 8 percent for the upper income groups – all of this over a period of 27 months.

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