BERLIN (Dispatches) - German transport union EVG on Wednesday called for a rail strike as workers demand higher wages to cope with high rates of inflation, the latest industrial action in Europe’s largest economy.
Rail workers across the country will walk out on Friday between 3:00 am (0100 GMT) and 11:00 am, the EVG said in a statement.
The short “warning strike” was intended to “encourage employers to bring reasonable offers” to pay talks, EVG’s deputy chairwoman Cosima Ingenschay told journalists outside Berlin’s main station.
“If that does not happen then we will have to think about even bigger strikes,” she said.
EVG represents 230,000 workers across some 50 transport companies, including national rail operator Deutsche Bahn.
The industrial action will heap on more transport woes for travellers, who were already facing disruption this week.
Separately, Germany’s second largest union Verdi had on Tuesday called on employees working in security at the airports in Duesseldorf, Cologne-Bonn and Hamburg to strike through Thursday and Friday.
EVG’s industrial action would have a “massive” impact across the rail network, Deutsche Bahn said in a statement.
Urban, regional and long-distance train services would be halted by the walkout, the operator said.
Local services would begin operating again shortly after the end of the strike with Deutsche Bahn promising to offer “as many connections as possible”.
Long-distance links would “progressively” resume service from 1:00 pm but would suffer disruptions into the “early hours of the evening”.
The strike was “completely useless, completely unnecessary”, Deutsche Bahn’s human resources chief Martin Seiler told journalists.
The disruption to services would affect “hundreds of thousands” of commuters ahead of the weekend, Seiler said, accusing EVG of losing all “proportion”.
“It is now about finding solutions at the negotiating table and not just wantonly announcing strikes,” Seiler said.
Negotiations between the EVG and Deutsche Bahn will continue next week.
EVG is demanding a 12-percent pay rise over one year for the workers it represents, with a minimum increase of 650 euros ($712) a month.
The union rejected Deutsche Bahn’s first offer of a five percent increase in two steps, covering 27 months, plus an “inflation bonus” of 2,500 euros.
The pay increase demanded by the union would help employees cope with “financial burdens that have increased sharply”, EVG said in a statement.
Inflation in Germany stood at 7.4 percent in March, remaining very elevated despite having fallen from a peak of 8.8 percent in October.
The strong increases in consumer prices has been driven by rising costs of energy in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of 2022.
Over the last months, workers in different sectors including healthcare, childcare and transport have gone on strike to demand better conditions.
The rail system was largely brought to a halt in a major strike at the end of March led by EVG and Verdi.
In Canada, more than 155,000 federal public servants have gone on strike across the coutry over low wages after failing to reach an agreement on a pay hike.
The industrial action by workers from the public sector started on Wednesday after their representatives failed to come up with a new wage agreement with the federal government.
Cleaners and cooks on military bases, clerks and maintenance workers, tradespeople, Coast Guard search and rescue teams, teachers, firefighters and workers who process employment insurance, passport applications and immigration documents were now expected to walk out of their jobs.
The workers’ union warned the public to be prepared for disruptions in government departments tending to taxes and passport services as well as the infamous immigration offices, which are notorious for being especially chaotic.
The call for strike came after the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) said they had failed to reach an agreement with the federal government over cost-of-living raises to keep up with the soaring inflation.