Transit Strike Throttles Commutes in Germany

BERLIN — Travel for millions of people in Germany was upended on Monday when transportation workers went on a 24-hour strike, the largest transit walkout in decades, bringing most train, tram, bus and ferry services to a halt and forcing the cancellation of a majority of flights.

Rail, local public transport, airport ground staff and other workers began to walk off the job late Sunday night in an effort to put pressure on the government as they try to negotiate salary increases of more than 10 percent in order to keep up with inflation.

The “mega-strike,” as it was described in the German media, was called by two of the country’s largest unions — Verdi, which represents public sector service workers, and EVG, which represents rail workers. The walkout, by 155,000 workers, was the largest transport workers’ action since a series of strikes in the 1990s and amounted to a warning shot about what could happen this time if negotiations fail.

The strike “is intended to make it unmistakably clear to the employers once again that the employees clearly stand behind our demands,” said Frank Werneke, the head of Verdi.

The overall nature of the German strike was a far cry from the walkouts in neighboring France, where hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets on a regular basis, sometimes clashing with the police, in response to the government’s decision to raise the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62.

Instead, like the strikes by postal workers, train drivers, nurses, teachers in Britain, the labor unrest in German is a response to the higher cost of living as inflation, which was 8.7 percent last month, and rising energy costs brought about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Verdi is demanding a salary increase of 10.5 percent — or at least 500 euros, about $540, per month, if that is more — for 2.5 million public sector workers. The government was last offering a 5 percent increase plus a onetime bonus of 2,500 euros when the last round of negotiations ended last month, and negotiations resumed on Monday morning.

EVG, which represents 230,000 rail workers, is looking for a 12 percent, or 650 euro increase. Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s main rail operator, said it has already offered a bonus payment of 2,500 euros and a gradual raise that could reach 11 percent.

The union must negotiate with other rail companies, too, some of which have not made any proposal, it says. The next round of negotiations with Deutsche Bahn is scheduled for late next month.

“We will continue to negotiate hard, but also fairly and constructively,” Nancy Feaser, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement on Monday about negotiations with the public sector employees, which her ministry is responsible for.