' union ordered members to down tools across the country at the end of the week. "There will from Friday, Oct. 5, be a nationwide strike on commuter and freight lines for a limited period," Manfred Schell, the president of the GDL union, told reporters in Frankfurt.
The call came after the collapse in September of last-ditch negotiations to resolve a protracted wage dispute between the union, which represents 8,000 train drivers, and state rail company Deutsche Bahn.
Schell accused Deutsche Bahn of refusing to negotiate seriously on a demand for a separate collective wage contract for drivers and dismissed the company's last salary offer as "the joke of the week."
Deutsche Bahn has proposed a 10 percent salary increase, but GDL demands pay rises of up to 31 percent for its drivers, which the rail operator has dismissed as outrageous.
The last major rail strike in Germany, where 10 million people take the train every day, was in 1992. It was part of a general public service protest and lasted 11 days.
The country suffered disruptive warning strikes earlier this year as the wage dispute dragged on, prompting Deutsche Bahn to go to court to avert nationwide strikes over the summer.
The union finally agreed to hold off until the end of September after independent mediators were appointed to resolve the wage dispute.
Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee warned in the latest issue of the magazine Der Spiegel that a strike would have "catastrophic consequences" for the biggest eurozone economy, which has regained its health after years in the doldrums.
Terms of use