Mediators on Wednesday presented their proposal to end a long-running pay dispute between Germany's main national railway operator and a major union, a two-year settlement that would head off damaging all-out strikes.
The EVG union agreed last month to take the dispute to arbitration after talks with state-owned operator Deutsche Bahn broke down. The union, which already staged hours-long or one-day “warning strikes,” a common tactic in German negotiations, had threatened to move on to open-ended strike action. The mediators, former government minister Thomas de Maiziere and labor lawyer Heide Pfarr, started work last week.
