Your Car Will Never Go on Strike: Unlike Germany

Der Spiegal reports:

A crippling strike by train drivers in a dispute over wages caused havoc across Germany during rush hour on Thursday morning, with countless delays and cancellations. Around 800 drivers walked off the job for six hours between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m., leaving thousands of commuters struggling to get to work -- and the dispute is threatening to become a long-term nightmare for travelers.

The industrial action was taken by the GDL union, which represents around 75 percent of Germany's train drivers. It is demanding a single pay scale for all its members, aimed at forcing smaller, private rail companies to offer the same wages as Deutsche Bahn, the country's national railway company. Private firms, which employ around 6,000 drivers compared to 20,000 at Deutsche Bahn, currently pay up to 30 percent less. The union has targeted Deutsche Bahn as a way of creating leverage, but the company has heavily criticized the strike action.

Obama and "high speed rail"? Via James Taranto.