(The New York Times posted the following Associated Press article on April 21.)
FRANKFURT, Germany — A German court on Monday issued an injunction preventing train engineers from staging a new round of limited strikes, national railroad operator Deutsche Bahn said.
The GdL union, which represents three-quarters of Deutsche Bahn’s engineers, had planned to start the strikes on Tuesday following the collapse of pay talks. The union, which is seeking exclusive rights to negotiate pay and conditions for the engineers, said it had scrapped that plan but was not withdrawing the threat of industrial action.
The Frankfurt labor court ruled that the strike plan must be dropped to “avert disproportionate damage” to Deutsche Bahn and its customers, the rail company said.
Last month, mediators presented a compromise pay agreement expected to be adopted by both sides, but the talks ended without agreement April 11 after GdL bridled at Deutsche Bahn’s refusal to give it exclusive negotiating rights for engineers.
Arbitrators had recommended a settlement that would give the engineers a 3.2 percent pay rise in May next year, echoing a deal reached March 15 with unions that represent other rail employees.
Pay talks began in January, and rail workers staged a series of short stoppages last month. In the most disruptive of those actions, striking engineers on March 6 briefly brought trains to a halt across the country.