BERLIN, Germany (PNN) - January 11, 2024 - A union representing many of Germany's train drivers started a nearly three-day strike early Wednesday in a bitter dispute with the country's state-owned main railway operator over working hours and pay.

Train travel across the country and in many cities came to a near standstill with commuters and other travellers struggling to find alternatives involving long-distance bus or car travel or flights.

State-owned Deutsche Bahn said only around 20% of its long-distance trains were running and many regional and commuter trains in cities like Berlin were also not in operation.

It comes as disgruntled farmers blocked motorway slip roads and snarled traffic elsewhere with their tractors as part of a separate protest against a government plan to scrap tax breaks on diesel used in agriculture.

Images shared on social media showed horrendous traffic jams clogging up roads in several German cities, and a line of dozens of tractors blocked the main avenue leading to the Brandenburg Gate.

“The strike by the train drivers' union GDL has had a massive impact on train services in Germany,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesman Anja Broeker. “We regret the restrictions and hope that many people who were unable to reschedule their journey will get to their destination.”

The GDL union's strike on cargo trains began on Tuesday evening.

In the wage dispute, the GDL union had already called two previous warning strikes last year, which lasted a maximum of 24 hours in passenger transport. The current strike lasts until Friday at 6:00 p.m.

Deutsche Bahn had tried to legally prevent the strike until the very end, but on Tuesday night a court ordered that the strike could go ahead.

Late last month, members of GDL voted overwhelmingly to stage open-ended strikes in a bitter dispute.

In addition to pay raises, the central issue is the union's call for shift workers' hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 hours per week without a pay reduction.

GDL argues that it would make working for the railway more attractive and help attract new recruits, while Deutsche Bahn says the demand can't practically be met.

Germany's Transportation Minister Volker Wissing called on both sides to return to the negotiating table.

“A way has to be found that both sides can get along with,” the minister told daily newspaper Bild. “That means talking to each other. I urge both sides to return to the negotiating table.”

However, union head Claus Weselsky said it was now up to Deutsche Bahn to present an improved offer.

If there's no new offer until Friday, “we'll take a break and go into the next strike,” Weselsky said in an interview on public broadcaster ZDF's morning show after the start of the train drivers' strike.

The train drivers' strike coincides with an unrelated one-week strike by farmers who have been blocking city streets and highway access roads in parts of the country since Monday.

Production at a Volkswagen car plant in Emden in northwestern Germany has been stopped because employees could not get to work.

Also protesters last week blockaded a port, preventing Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck from disembarking a ferry as he returned from a personal trip to an offshore island.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular three-Party coalition infuriated the farmers last month by drawing up plans to abolish a car tax exemption for farming vehicles and the diesel tax breaks.

The government on Thursday climbed down partially, saying that the car tax exemption would be retained and the cuts in the diesel tax breaks would be staggered over three years.

But the German Farmers' Association said this was not enough and insists the plans must be reversed fully if the government wants to avoid demonstrations.

Joachim Rukwied, the head of German farmers' association DBV, asked the public for sympathy in an interview published on Monday.

“We do not want to lose the support and solidarity we have received from large parts of the population,” he told Stern magazine, but said the farmers “will not accept the planned tax hikes for the agricultural sector.”

Germany's ailing economy is experiencing a turbulent start to the year amid the nationwide farmers' protests.

The economy, Europe's biggest, was also the weakest among its large euro zone peers last year, as high energy costs, feeble global orders, and record-high interest rates took their toll.

The government then suffered a huge blow in November when Germany's top Court threw out its 2024 budget plans, forcing divisive political wrangling over how to fill a 17 billion euro funding gap.

The ill-fated plan to scrap tax exemptions for farming vehicles was one proposed solution.

Scholz' coalition watered down its proposals last week in its hastily reworked budget to cut diesel subsidies.

Rather than abruptly ending the farmers' tax break, the subsidy will be reduced by 40% this year, by 30% in 2025, and will end from 2026, under the amended plan.

The government also dropped plans to abolish the preferential treatment in vehicle tax for forestry and agriculture.

But Rukwied said this did not go far enough and kept plans for nationwide rallies this week.