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GERMANY’S main train drivers’ union won a bitter dispute with the country’s biggest railway operator yesterday following nine strikes over the past year.
The Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivfuhrer (GDL) union, which represents some 2,000 drivers and also other railway staff, reached a deal with state-owned Deutsche Bahn.
Mediator Bodo Ramelow, who was once a union official but since December has been the first Left party state premier in Germany, heading a coalition of The Left, SPD and Greens in Thuringia, said yesterday that the agreement would ease train drivers’ workload by reducing overtime and setting a 38-hour working week.
The deal also includes a two-stage pay increase of more than 5 per cent over the coming years, which was one of the key union demands.
In order to reduce the huge amount of overtime worked by train drivers, 300 new staff will be hired.
