Rail Strike Ends

Manfred Schell, chairman of the GDL union which called the strike, said passenger services could be hit from Tuesday if state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn fails to make a new pay offer.

The union said the strike that began at midday on Thursday paralyzed goods traffic in Germany's eastern states and also hit two-thirds of the trains in the west of the country.

Deutsche Bahn board member Norbert Bensel said it was "the worst strike we have ever experienced in the rail freight transport sector" and had a knock-on effect in neighboring countries.

"Several hundred trains are waiting at international borders to enter Germany," he said shortly before drivers began returning to work at 6 am.

"It is a terrible thing that 1,000 train drivers can threaten Germany's industrial base," he said, although most large manufacturing companies said production had not been seriously affected by the stoppage.

The union, which represents around 15,500 of Germany's 19,600 train drivers, is seeking a rise of up to 31 per cent in a separate wage contract to the one Deutsche Bahn signed with two larger unions.

The rail operator rejects this, fearing it could prompt other sectors of the company to demand their own pay deals, making collective bargaining more difficult.

Industry relatively unaffected by goods suspension

Carmakers VW and BMW said production was continuing as normal, while steelmakers ThyssenKrupp and Salzgitter also said they had been relatively unaffected.

Despite being one of the main targets, the north-eastern port of Rostock on the Baltic coast continued to operate.

GDL boss Schell claimed 3,500 goods train drivers had heeded the strike call and that around 1,000 of the 5,000 goods trains that DB runs daily had been halted.

Schell threatened to expand the strike next week to hit the commuter and long-distance passenger traffic used by around 5 million people daily.

According to an opinion poll taken by public television, 57 per cent of the population backs the train drivers, while 39 per cent are opposed.