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Upcoming Strikes


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Local strike coming up: public transport in Cologne and the surrounding districts this coming Tuesday.

 

Increased car traffic and a bit of chaos at the main train station next to the cathredral quite likely.

 

More strikes in the public sector are planned for Wednesday that will not affect travellers.

 

Yes, Lufthansa was cancelled, buth the matter has not been resolved, there might be a strike comping up. Latest development in the last 24 hours.

 

notamermaid

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We had a 3 hour strike of the airport security staff this week (5 am til 8 am) here at Munich airport. So there were longer lines at security.

 

But no strikes for LH so far. Everything else won´t affect you (unless you use public transportation, hospitals, kindergardens...).

 

steamboats

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Probably a dumb question but do different country workers go on strike all the time?

 

I know when we visited France two years ago the train workers were on strike and transportation was shut down. Is it common? And what kind of heads up do you get?

 

We are doing our first river cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg in June. Anything I need to be on the lookout for?

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I understand that French law assures workers of full pay if they miss less than an hour, hence "59 minute strikes." Any special rules in Germany for three hour stoppages?

Edited by CPT Trips
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We had a 3 hour strike of the airport security staff this week (5 am til 8 am) here at Munich airport. So there were longer lines at security.

 

steamboats

 

Glad we missed that...we flew out of MUC Tuesday morning.

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Probably a dumb question but do different country workers go on strike all the time?

 

 

Train workers went on strike while we were ON a train in Italy several years ago. Instead of taking us to our destination, they stopped at the next station and made everyone get off. Loads of fun :rolleyes:

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Train workers went on strike while we were ON a train in Italy several years ago. Instead of taking us to our destination, they stopped at the next station and made everyone get off. Loads of fun :rolleyes:

 

Oh my word that is crazy. What did you guys do? So they can decide within hours just to go on strike!

 

Glad to know that because we are taking the train after our river cruise to Italy.

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Train workers went on strike while we were ON a train in Italy several years ago. Instead of taking us to our destination, they stopped at the next station and made everyone get off. Loads of fun :rolleyes:

 

Oh my word that is crazy. What did you guys do? So they can decide within hours just to go on strike!

 

Glad to know that because we are taking the train after our river cruise to Italy.

 

I believe there is a special agreement with the Italian unions that they will not strike the Leonardo Express train between Rome and the airport. At least there is some sanity that tourism is "the gift that keeps on giving" to labor and management!

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Bad news for airports in Germany: There will be strikes on Wednesday on all major airports. So far we don´t know who exactly is going on strike and how much it will impact travel plans. It´s not the airline staff but ground staff working at the airport itself.

 

As for Germany: Contracts between employer "unions" and the unions are limited by time (the contracts are mainly about the wages). So by the end of the contract the negotiations start again. During that period of time the unions can call their members for short term strikes as a warning towards the employers. Those strikes can be locally or just for a couple of hours. When the negotiations have failed the unions can ask their members whether they should go on strike for a longer period of time. It´s a ballot. Usually the unions do get the o.k. by their members. Then usually there are longer strikes (usually not permanently ongoing but for a couple of days, a week, then a break and then again...). Fortunately this doesn´t happen too often. It´s worse in Italy and France.

 

steamboats

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Oh my word that is crazy. What did you guys do? So they can decide within hours just to go on strike!

 

Glad to know that because we are taking the train after our river cruise to Italy.

 

We took a taxi to our destination. Fortunately, it was only two stops away as it was a regionale train and we were headed to Florence SMN, about a twenty minute drive. I imagine they announced it locally but we were not paying attention to the local news.

 

We have had quite a few train adventures over the years.:)

Edited by caviargal
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Train travel in Europe is always interesting, to say the least. Adding a strike in the mix would certainly be extra-interesting and not so much fun...:(

 

A fun strike however, is when the Autostrada toll booth operators go on strike! Back in the 80's I lived in Milan for several years and when they would strike, the gates were left wide open and we got a free drive to wherever we were going. I imagine its different these days however, with toll booth's accepting credit cards, they likely manage to keep the revenue flowing and gates down even during strikes. Who needs people?!?!

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Strikes in Europe happen. I have been affected by them several times. Italy is the worst. In Italy do not depend on public trains, metro, etc. they stop and start randomly. Strikes often can ruin your vacation. Also, in Rome there are vehicle stops to avoid smog. Everything that moves with an engine stops. It can be short or last for hours. If you are staying in Rome, book close to your desired location. Be ready to walk. Also, do not depend on train transfers. In France, worker protests can block roads. Germany also has demonstrations. Airline strikes do not happen too often. If it happens to you, relax. You cannot change it. You may be forced to syay longer. . Buying travel insurance can help with any added expenses like hotels,etc. always take extra meds, money, eyc. Keep your electronic devices charged up. Electrical outages happen too. Good luck.

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We have been affected twice by rail strikes in Italy. On both of them, the express trains were stopped but the local milk runs were still running. Meant that an hour's trip was more like 2 hours in a dirty train but at least you got there.

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Having lived in Italy for 5 years I agree that they are the worst.

 

In 2011 we returned to show our children where they were born and have a family reunion with my DH's sisters and families in Tuscany. We were scheduled to leave DC on the Friday night in mid-June when United's world-wide computer system went out grounding all their planes just as we were boarding our already 2 hour delayed flight. To make that very long story short we luckily were rescheduled the next night on a flight to Munich and a transfer to Rome (many people didn't get out for days) on Lufthansa.

 

On the flight into Rome one of the flight attendants started whispering to my DH that there were problems in Rome - the baggage handlers had just called a wildcat strike that very morning and walked off the job. The pilot was waiting for guidance from Lufthansa as to whether we would just turn around and return to Munich. Ten minutes before reaching Rome, the attendant told my DH that the strike was ending 'soon' so they had gotten permission to land but no gate and no baggage handlers would be available 'for a while.' They eventually announced that to everyone on the plane as we were taxiing after landing. We waited about an hour before the luggage and passengers were unloaded and then went to claim our luggage only to find that United had not loaded it on the Munich flight - it was still in DC! It was 4 or 5 days before we received our luggage at the villa in Tuscany.

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Having lived in Italy for 5 years I agree that they are the worst.

 

In 2011 we returned to show our children where they were born and have a family reunion with my DH's sisters and families in Tuscany. We were scheduled to leave DC on the Friday night in mid-June when United's world-wide computer system went out grounding all their planes just as we were boarding our already 2 hour delayed flight. To make that very long story short we luckily were rescheduled the next night on a flight to Munich and a transfer to Rome (many people didn't get out for days) on Lufthansa.

 

On the flight into Rome one of the flight attendants started whispering to my DH that there were problems in Rome - the baggage handlers had just called a wildcat strike that very morning and walked off the job. The pilot was waiting for guidance from Lufthansa as to whether we would just turn around and return to Munich. Ten minutes before reaching Rome, the attendant told my DH that the strike was ending 'soon' so they had gotten permission to land but no gate and no baggage handlers would be available 'for a while.' They eventually announced that to everyone on the plane as we were taxiing after landing. We waited about an hour before the luggage and passengers were unloaded and then went to claim our luggage only to find that United had not loaded it on the Munich flight - it was still in DC! It was 4 or 5 days before we received our luggage at the villa in Tuscany.

 

Capriccio I have to say you have some great memories. What a crazy and wild adventure. Thanks for sharing your story!!

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I don't understand all this concern over mere strikes (okay I got caught up in a Lufthansa rolling work stoppage 11 Nov, and hence would have missed my connection in FRA to South Africa, but after hours on the phone was able to re-route through Sao Paulo - Europe, South America, whatever; it got us to Africa on-time).

 

Lyn & I did the Devil's Nose train in Ecuador a few years ago, and purchasing a ticket requires ALL of your passport info. I somehow "forgot" to tell Lyn this information was required for the INCLUDED Life Insurance. The train sopped twice to clear rocks from the tracks, and three time to shovel mud off the tracks, but I'm happy to report that neither we nor anyone else collected on the Life Insurance. It was an "interesting" ride.

 

Thom

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I don't understand all this concern over mere strikes (okay I got caught up in a Lufthansa rolling work stoppage 11 Nov, and hence would have missed my connection in FRA to South Africa, but after hours on the phone was able to re-route through Sao Paulo - Europe, South America, whatever; it got us to Africa on-time).

 

Lyn & I did the Devil's Nose train in Ecuador a few years ago, and purchasing a ticket requires ALL of your passport info. I somehow "forgot" to tell Lyn this information was required for the INCLUDED Life Insurance. The train sopped twice to clear rocks from the tracks, and three time to shovel mud off the tracks, but I'm happy to report that neither we nor anyone else collected on the Life Insurance. It was an "interesting" ride.

 

Thom

 

Thom

 

Now that sounds like a interesting ride for sure. Sounds like something out of a movie! Glad y'all didn't have to collect on the life insurance! :)

Edited by ShannonSC2
Misspelled word
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Now that sounds like a interesting ride for sure. Sounds like something out of a movie! Glad y'all didn't have to collect on the life insurance! :)
We had seats in the second row, behind a Japanese film crew, producing a Japanese "Great Train Rides of the World" series show. My Japanese is pretty limited, but at the third stop to clear the tracks, I caught the eye of one of the camera men and said "Shenkansen" (literally "new trunk line", the word for Bullet trains). He looked shocked and then laughed. I don't consider myself a real rail buff, but somehow over the years I've done the night sleeper from Nairobi to Mombasa, the no-longer-running train in Costa Rica that made 52 stops in the 100 miles from Puerto Limon to San Jose, the no-longer-running train (actually a 1938 Ford bus with rail wheels) from Bolivia to the coast at Arica Chile (half of the 11 hour ride was above 14,00 feet), the Blue Train in the Congo (not to be confused with the Blue Train in South Africa) that habitually runs hours if not days late, the southern most train in the world to an old Argentine penal colony on Tierra del Fuego, etc. Lots of stuff the see in the world.:)

 

Thom

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We had seats in the second row, behind a Japanese film crew, producing a Japanese "Great Train Rides of the World" series show. My Japanese is pretty limited, but at the third stop to clear the tracks, I caught the eye of one of the camera men and said "Shenkansen" (literally "new trunk line", the word for Bullet trains). He looked shocked and then laughed. I don't consider myself a real rail buff, but somehow over the years I've done the night sleeper from Nairobi to Mombasa, the no-longer-running train in Costa Rica that made 52 stops in the 100 miles from Puerto Limon to San Jose, the no-longer-running train (actually a 1938 Ford bus with rail wheels) from Bolivia to the coast at Arica Chile (half of the 11 hour ride was above 14,00 feet), the Blue Train in the Congo (not to be confused with the Blue Train in South Africa) that habitually runs hours if not days late, the southern most train in the world to an old Argentine penal colony on Tierra del Fuego, etc. Lots of stuff the see in the world.:)

 

Thom

 

WOW!!!! I would not have survived any of those train rides:D

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