Trains at a Standstill

The sixth national rail stopping in the three-month dispute between Deutsche Bahn and the GDL train drivers' unions began Wednesday afternoon with freight trains and escalated early Thursday to include passenger trains.

"Even without exactly quantifying it, the rail strike does have an economic effect and is a burden on an otherwise positive economy," government spokesman Thomas Steg said at a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday.

Economists have estimated that the freight train strike costs 50 million euros ($73.3 million) per day. If the current strike were to continue for more than a week, losses could rise to 500 million euros daily, according to reports. The GDL, however, has said the industrial action would end on 2:00 a.m. on Saturday.

The GDL has been trying to force the Deutsche Bahn into "an unconditional surrender," Deutsche Bahn's human resources manager Karl-Friedrich Rausch told broadcaster ARD. "That won't happen."

"If we give in now, the damage to the economy would be even greater," he said.

Lack of supplies leads to less work

Neighboring European countries have also been affected by the strike.

The Audi factory in Brussels, cancelled its early shift Thursday morning because parts that were due to be delivered from Germany by train had not arrived. Some 800 workers stayed at home. Reduced work hours were expected elsewhere as well.

"Thousands of workers are threatened by reductions because supplies are lacking," Ludwig Georg Braun, president of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, told Germany's daily Bild newspaper.

Freight trains from Germany into France had also been suspended Thursday morning. The Germany-wide strike coincides with a rail strike in France over pension reform, compounding the situation there.

Backup at ports leads to heavy losses

Germany's northern ports are scrambling to find extra space to store freight containers waiting for trains or alternative means of transport. About 30 percent of the goods that pass through Hamburg's heavily trafficked port are usually transported by train.

"If the seaports are blocked, the daily economic damage will exceed 500 million euros," Adolf Zobel from the national logistics association BGL told the daily Passauer Neue Presse. "It could reach as much as 2 billion euros a day in extreme cases." The steel, automotive and chemical industries are particularly affected, he said.

Concern over precedence for fragmented unions

GDL, one of several train drivers' unions in Germany, says that its members do not receive fair pay compared to other European rail companies. Deutsche Bahn agreed in July to a 4.5 percent pay increase for 195,000 rail workers from other unions.

GDL initially demanded a 31 percent pay increase, but has said this would be open to negotiation if its 34,000 members were given their own contract. Deutsche Bahn wants a standard agreement across the sector and has rejected the possibility of a separate deal.

Concerns have been raised that, should GDL get its way, this could lead other unions to fragment and push up labor costs by encouraging workers to demand separate wage agreements.

Airlines, car rentals benefit from strike

Eastern Germany is hit the hardest by the strike, where only about 10 percent of trains were running on Thursday. Many train drivers belong to GDL in the region. In western Germany, about half of the trains were reportedly in service.

With the strike extended to passenger trains, busses had been brought in to replace cancelled local trains. Many commuters were expected to go by car, leading to heavier traffic on the motorways.

Car-rental agencies and discount airlines reported higher bookings as stranded travelers sought alternative means of transportation. On some routes, reservations had risen by 15 to 30 percent, an Air Berlin spokeswoman told the daily Berliner Zeitung.