As soon as it started, it’s already over. The GDL has ended its strike at SWEG. And leaves open how it goes on.
Mannheim/Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) – After just one day, the train drivers’ union GDL ended its strike at Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs GmbH (SWEG) and the subsidiary SWEG Bahn Stuttgart GmbH (SBS). The strike ended at 4 p.m. on Saturday, said the chairman of the GDL district south-west, Lutz Dächert, of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. The GDL will now advise on how to proceed. Dächert did not want to comment any further.
The GDL only announced a strike at short notice on Friday afternoon, without naming a planned end for it. As a result, there were failures on SBS lines in the Stuttgart network and Neckar Valley, as a spokeswoman said.
A SWEG spokesman announced on Saturday afternoon that it would be some time before rail traffic was running normally again. In addition, very short-term, further work stoppages must still be expected. Trains could then stand still in the course of the journey and fail. Passengers should continue to find out about their connections before boarding their journey.
The collective bargaining conflict is about the fact that the GDL, according to its own statements, would like to negotiate a collective agreement for the more than 500 railway workers not only for the SBS, but for the entire SWEG group. The group has a total of 1800 employees.
SWEG rejects this and does not want to take over the former Abellio Rail Baden-Württemberg – today SBS – permanently. The Abellio daughter got into financial difficulties at the end of 2021. The company then took over the state-owned SWEG for an initial period of two years.
