Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - After a break during the Christmas season, train travelers in the south-west have had to adjust to failures and delays again since Wednesday. The reason is another strike by the train drivers' union GDL at Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs GmbH (SWEG), as the company announced. The walkout started just after midnight. A GDL spokesman did not want to name an end time. According to the union, it is now the 13th call for a strike, if you include the warning strikes.
The company said: "It is possible for trains to stop and be canceled on the route. Passengers must take this into account when planning their journey and, if necessary, switch to alternative travel options."
In the past few weeks, the GDL had repeatedly called for work stoppages at short notice. The background is a collective bargaining conflict in which the GDL, according to its own statements, would like to negotiate a collective bargaining 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.
