The head of Germany's national rail operator and Chancellor Angela Merkel urged train drivers not to strike during the summer vacation period as union leaders have threatened to do.
"Our customers cannot be made to suffer because of the power games of a small union," Deutsche Bahn [DBN.UL] Chief Executive Hartmut Mehdorn wrote in a guest contribution for Bild am Sonntag, the country's top-selling Sunday newspaper. "Railway strikes during the holiday seasons would be a bad thing. This can't happen."
Merkel made a similar appeal in an interview in the Saturday edition of Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.
"Now during the vacation period it would be desirable to enable people to take trains to their holiday locations with as few hindrances as possible," Merkel said.
On Thursday Deutsche Bahn said wage talks with the GDL train drivers' union broke down, paving the way for a new round of strikes in Europe's largest economy.
Deutsche Bahn agreed to a wage deal with two other rail unions earlier this month but the smaller GDL train drivers' union is demanding a separate accord for a bigger pay rise. The union has said it would hold a vote on a strike which would take place during the peak holiday season.
Deutsche Bahn and the two other unions agreed on a wage deal which would give some 134,000 workers a 4.5 percent raise from next year. The GDL is demanding pay rises of up to 31 percent.
Transnet, one of the two railway workers' unions to agree a wage settlement, has threatened it would seek fresh wage talks if Deutsche Bahn grants the train drivers a separate pay deal. Earlier this month, the country was hit by big disruptions to rail travel as Bahn workers staged warning strikes.
On Tuesday Merkel's cabinet is expected to approve the stock market flotation of a 25 percent stake, which the government has valued at 3 billion euros ($4.14 billion), in Deutsche Bahn AG.
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