Germany’s train drivers second strike to worsen logistics woes – VCI

LONDON (ICIS)–Germany’s persistent logistics woes are to worsen with the ongoing strike by train drivers, the second in less than a month, trade group VCI said to ICIS on Monday.

The trade group said the train drivers’ strike comes “at the wrong time” and would intensify bottlenecks in supply chains.

Germany’s train drivers began on Saturday (21 August) a nationwide strike to press their case in a dispute over pay, pensions and working conditions with rail carrier Deutsche Bahn (DB).

After the first, four-day strike, which ended on 13 August, bore no results, the train drivers’ labour union GDL called a second strike, affecting freight since Saturday, and passenger traffic from Monday.

“Already now, roughly 20% of chemical companies have to cut production due to input shortages. Moreover, the strike is delaying the delivery of products from the chemical-pharmaceutical industry to its customers,” said VCI.

“The new industrial action is an obstacle to the shift from road to rail, which makes sense in terms of climate policy. The industry’s plans for such a shift are severely curbed by the renewed strike, even more so as it comes at short notice.”

The trade group added that chemicals companies would need to incur in higher costs to face the logistical challenge presented by the strike as other “fast and flexible” solutions to reach their customers would require “immense manpower”.

According to VCI figures, in 2019 around 204m tonnes of chemicals (excluding pipelines) were transported by rail, around 12% of the total.

“For many substances, rail is the transport mode of choice, while rail is usually mandatory for some chemicals,” it concluded.

Front page picture: An empty departures board at Berlin’s central railway station on Monday
Source: Filip Singer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock