German railway runs much-reduced schedule as drivers’ union stages a 20-hour strike

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s national railway operator is running a drastically reduced schedule after a union called a 20-hour strike aimed at increasing the pressure in a bitter dispute over pay and working hours. The strike by drivers and other workers in the GDL union began at 10 p.m. on Wednesday and was scheduled to end at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Limited “warning strikes” are a common tactic in German pay negotiations. The main national railway operator, state-owned Deutsche Bahn, expected to run about 20% of its normal long-distance service. Regional and local services also were affected, though to varying degrees because some are run by private operators and not all of those were targeted by the strike.