Rail operator strike costing Germany €100m daily

The rail operator Deutsche Bahn told judges Friday that a four-day strike by engine drivers was doing 100 million euros (130 million dollars) in damage daily to Germany's economy, dpa reported.
Lawyer Thomas Ubber named the sum at an urgent appeal to the labour tribunal of the state of Hesse, a day after a lower court rejected Bahn's bid to have the strike declared disproportionate to the issue at stake and illegal under laws aimed at averting industrial strife.
The unpopular strike has knocked out two-thirds of trains, with the rest driven by members of a rival union that disowns the strike.
Strikers from the GDL union picketed the head office in Berlin of Deutsche Bahn despite a partial lockdown of the city by police in advance of anniversary celebrations of the end of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The strike is likely to prevent many Germans attending the Sunday party.