Striking Lorry Drivers at German Service Stop Reach Deal Over Wages

Edwin Atema, the Dutch trade union official who was appointed by the drivers to negotiate on their behalf, said the drivers were paid money and that the Polish freight firm which employed them had agreed in writing to withdraw legal complaints against the strikers.

Atema did not say how much money the drivers received.

The Polish company also promised not to file any claims against the drivers in the future, in Germany or any other country. The contractor had filed a complaint of extortion against the drivers with the public prosecutor’s office in the German city of Darmstadt.

Continuing the strike no longer made sense, particularly given the stressful situation for the drivers, who have been staying for more than two months at a service area in Gräfenhausen, about 25 kilometres south of Frankfurt in western Germany.

The group of about 80 men had been demanding what they said was more than €500,000 ($530,000) in unpaid wages from their employer. The men said they had not been paid for months.

About 30 of the drivers went on a hunger strike to press their demands.

“These drivers fought for their money,” said Atema, who called the Gräfenhausen service area the “Waterloo” for the Polish trucking company, a reference to Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The “desperate protest” of the Eastern European truck drivers has come to an end and a solution has been found, said Stefan Körzell, a board member with the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB).

Thanks to a large number of donations, the drivers can now be helped, he said.

But Körzell demanded “political consequences” from the strike, at both the European level as well as in Poland and Germany. Polish authorities, Körzell said, must permanently revoke the transport licenses of the transport companies involved in the pay dispute.