Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer

[1] In August 2007 the GDL planned to strike after talks failed with Deutsche Bahn, the main German railway operator, over a range of demands from the union.

[2] On 2 November 2007, the labour court in Chemnitz overturned a previous judgement limiting strike action to short-haul routes.

[5][6][7] The strike ended as the union had planned, at 2:00 a.m. CET on the morning of Saturday, November 17, 2007, but without a new contract.

[11] In 2014 the GDL started a series of strikes of the German railway system as a result of Deutsche Bahn declining its demands for a shorter working week (reduced from 39 hours to 37 hours), for a 5% pay increase and for the right to independently represent 17,000 railway workers not working as engine drivers in collective bargaining processes.

[14] A further strike started on 19 May 2015 [15][16] and finished on 21 May as the GDL and Deutsche Bahn agreed to allow arbitration to resolve the conflict.