Normal is returning to traffic after the all-day labor dispute at the start of the week.
The impact on rail and air travel has been great - but is it the same for the negotiations?
Berlin/Frankfurt - Deutsche Bahn called on the railway and transport union EVG to quickly return to the negotiating table after the major transport strike.
"We have to negotiate now and don't take an Easter break," said a railway spokesman on Tuesday in Berlin.
"We have to come to a solution quickly at the negotiating table." The traffic that was on strike on Monday has meanwhile started again, and there were hardly any disturbances on Tuesday morning.
Economic experts assume that the major strike had manageable macroeconomic consequences.
After the major strike, Deutsche Bahn train services resumed as scheduled on Tuesday morning, according to the company.
"In long-distance traffic, only a few trips are canceled in the morning hours," said a spokesman.
The regional and S-Bahn traffic runs without strike-related failures.
The airports, including Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt, also resumed operations.
A total of 1,118 flight movements with around 157,000 passengers were planned in Frankfurt on Tuesday, including almost 3,800 passengers who could not have flown due to the strike, said a spokeswoman for the operator Fraport.
Around 40 flight cancellations were known for Tuesday morning, some of which were due to the consequences of a strike.
There were also still effects of the strike at Cologne/Bonn Airport.
According to the departure schedule, early flights were postponed to later in the morning and some were also cancelled.
The strike at the airport lasted until 7 a.m., a spokeswoman said.
At Düsseldorf Airport, on the other hand, according to a spokesman, air traffic was “normal”.
There was no chaos on the streets
On Monday, the EVG and the Verdi trade union went on strike on rail, air and shipping traffic in Germany.
The work stoppage caused numerous flight cancellations, the train stopped long-distance traffic completely, and regional traffic was also massively affected, especially on Monday morning.
The warning strike did not cause chaos on the streets.
Mobility researcher Andreas Knie told the radio station WDR 5 that, in his opinion, the unions' strategy did not quite work.
+
In rail traffic in particular, it should take a few hours before everything runs smoothly again.
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Large strikes in public transport like on Monday would no longer have the effect they had in the 70s, 80s and 90s because of the greater flexibility of employees in their professional lives since Corona.
"What we used to have, where the republic really stands still, will no longer exist."
Scientists were not surprised that the feared traffic chaos on the streets did not materialize on Monday, said Knie.
Around 40 percent of employees across all sectors no longer go to the office on around 2.5 days.
People were flexible even before the strike.
Employers have also learned that they would not suffer any losses if some people worked from home.
More power due to a shortage of skilled workers?
The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, assumes that the strike day caused only small costs to the economy as a whole, “because many were able to adapt and work mobile”, as he told the “Rheinische Post”.
At the same time, he emphasized that from his point of view the employees now have more influence: "Due to the great shortage of skilled workers, employees are gaining power and thus the possibility of enforcing higher wage agreements."
In its negotiations with 50 railway companies, the EVG demands at least 650 euros more per month for all employees or twelve percent more money for the upper wage groups.
In the current collective bargaining dispute, Deutsche Bahn had offered, among other things, to raise the wages of the employees affected by a total of five percent in two steps.
In addition, one-off payments totaling 2,500 euros were promised.
The EVG rejected this.
At DB, the negotiations affect around 180,000 employees.
The next talks are scheduled for the end of April.
Before that, the EVG will meet with a number of smaller companies to negotiate collective agreements.
Verdi and the civil servants' association dbb are negotiating for around 2.5 million public sector employees at the federal and municipal levels.
The third round has been running in Potsdam since Monday.
The unions are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more per month for a period of twelve months.
Employers offer 5 percent more in two steps with a term of 27 months.
Municipalities and the federal government reject a minimum amount, but offer one-off payments of initially 1,500 and later another 1,000 euros.
dpa
