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Warning strike: Austria's rail traffic is at a standstill on Monday

2022-11-27T16:57:07.470Z


Negotiations on a new collective agreement have failed: Austrian railway workers are on strike on Monday. Long-distance travel is also affected – cross-border connections with Germany as early as Sunday.


Enlarge image

A train of the Austrian Federal Railways (here in 2020 at Munich Central Station)

Photo: Lino Mirgeler/ DPA

After failed collective bargaining, Austria's railway workers shut down train services on Monday with a 24-hour warning strike.

The state-run Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) announced that cross-border connections with Germany, Switzerland and other countries would be affected by the measure from Sunday.

"There will be failures in the Nightjet and Euronight connections from today, Sunday evening, until Tuesday morning," it said in a statement.

The private Westbahn, which runs between Vienna and Munich, also announced a stop on Monday.

Buses and other public transport in Austria are not affected.

The Vida union, which represents around 50,000 railway workers, had demanded a flat-rate wage increase of 400 euros - which, according to employee representatives, would mean an average increase of around twelve percent.

The Chamber of Commerce, which conducts negotiations on the employer side, recently improved its offer to 8.4 percent.

Inflation in Austria was eleven percent year-on-year in October.

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On Sunday morning, however, both sides said the talks had failed for the time being and blamed each other.

"We are fighting for a sustainable inflation adjustment that, in the course of skyrocketing prices, will primarily relieve lower and middle incomes more," said Vida negotiator Gerhard Tauchner.

The union argued that current entry-level salaries are sometimes below the poverty line.

"I have no understanding for this strike," said ÖBB boss Andreas Matthä.

The current wage offer is higher than in all other sectors.

skr/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-11-27

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