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Repeated strikes hurt Germany's reputation: business group

Xinhua, May 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

A German business group warned on Tuesday that repeated train drivers' strikes in Germany would hurt the country's international reputation and cause an economic damage of up to 100 million euros (about 111.62 million U.S. dollars) a day.

The warning from Federation of German Industries (BDI) came as German train drivers started their 9th national strike since July last year on Tuesday after failing to reach a compromise over a labor dispute with German railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB).

Freight train drivers walked off their jobs at 15:00 (1300 GMT) on Tuesday. They will be joined by passenger train drivers at 2:00 (0000 GMT) on Wednesday.

According to train drivers' union GDL, the strike would be indefinite as no end date was set.

"With the 9th strike within 10 months, the GDL put the international reputation of logistics location Germany in jeopardy," warned Dieter Schweer, a member of the executive board of BDI.

"Reliability of the logistics chain has been a quality feature of our country. This trust was eroded wantonly," he said.

According to him, industries of chemistry, steel and automobile that rely on railway logistics were particularly affected by the strike. Economic loss caused by the work stoppage would be up to 100 million euros per day.

"It is a piece of bad news for German economy," said Eric Schweitzer, President of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), referring to GDL's new strike plan.

He urged the union and DB to come back to the negotiating table and prevent the tremendous economic losses from further increasing.

This week's strike came just eight days after the drivers ended a week-long walkout. According to Schweitzer's estimation, the last strike that ended on May 10 cost the German economy 500 million euros. Endit