Strike!

Last week my co-worker asked me if I took the train to work. “No,” I told him. “I either walk or take my bike.”

“That’s good,” he said, “because the train workers are going on strike.”

I looked online, and sure enough, a group of “rebel” train drivers were orchestrating a country-wide strike until they got a 31 percent wage increase.

How exciting! My first workers uprising!

Deutsche Bahn, the federal transportation operator, said it would maintain a scaled back schedule (about one train an hour) by recruiting civil servants with train operator licenses. Civil servants are barred by law from going on strike.

But then just a day later when I began asking people how they were dealing with the strike, they informed me that it had already ended. A court in Nuremberg made it illegal for the train workers to strike before late August, because it is the height of the tourist season and it would do significant damage to the German economy.

Until then, Deutsche Bahn said it would try to negotiate the workers' salary without any disruption to future operations.