As of: February 3, 2024 12:04 a.m
The warning strike on public transport in Schleswig-Holstein is not due to end until early Sunday morning. In Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg, on the other hand, buses and trains are scheduled to run again from this morning after a one-day shutdown.
On Friday, since the early hours of the morning, buses and trains had stopped working in large parts of northern Germany. In the collective bargaining dispute over higher salaries, more vacation days and adjustments to shift bonuses, the ver.di union called for a warning strike in local transport in all federal states – except Bavaria: usually from the start of operations at 3 a.m. until 3 a.m. this morning. In some places – such as in Schleswig-Holstein – the strikes are expected to last a little longer.
Strike at the Hamburger Hochbahn – emergency operation on line U3
In Hamburg, the warning strike started as announced on Friday at 3 a.m. According to its own information, the Hochbahn set up an emergency operation on the U3 line in order to offer a reliable 20-minute service at least throughout the day. In addition, a few bus routes ran in emergency mode. The focus was on the lines that offer a connection to the S-Bahn, said a Hochbahn spokesman. The Hamburger Hochbahn operates bus and subway services in the Hanseatic city. The S-Bahn, which belongs to Deutsche Bahn, was not affected by the warning strike. The HADAG harbor ferries also ran, as did regional trains and the AKN bus replacement service.
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Ground staff strike at Hamburg Airport
After the warning strike by the aviation security forces and the cancellation of all departures on Thursday, there was also a situation on Friday morning Another warning strike began at Hamburg airport. Ver.di had called on ground handling service providers to stop working from 3 a.m. to midnight. Long lines formed in front of the security checkpoint. However, flight operations ran normally, as an airport spokeswoman said. Only a few departures and arrivals were canceled. The spokeswoman emphasized that the reason for the cancellation of these flights was not the current warning strike in Hamburg. The airport announced on its homepage that early evening check-in was not possible on Friday either.
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Lower Saxony: Six municipal companies affected
In Lower Saxony, employees of the Braunschweiger Verkehrsgesellschaft, the Göttingen Verkehrsbetriebe, Osnabus and SWO-Mobil in Osnabrück, Stadtbus Goslar, Üstra Hannover and the Wolfsburger Verkehrsgesellschaft stopped their work. The employees of Bremer Straßenbahn AG also went on strike. On Friday afternoon, Ver.di spoke of around 2,500 employees from Lower Saxony and 1,200 in Bremen who took part in the strikes, demonstrations and rallies. “The high participation of colleagues in today’s warning strikes is also an expression of how angry the public transport workers are after the employers’ proposals from the first round of talks,” said Marian Drews, who handled collective bargaining for TV for ver.di -N leads in Lower Saxony.
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There is a strike in Schleswig-Holstein until Sunday
The public transport strike in the northernmost federal state of Schleswig-Holstein also started on Friday at 3 a.m. – it is expected to last until operations begin on Sunday morning. This affects routes that are served by public bus transport (TV-N), such as the Kieler Verkehrsgesellschaft (KVG), the Stadtwerke mobil in Lübeck, the city transport in Neumünster and AktivBus in Flensburg, as well as private companies throughout Schleswig-Holstein. Ver.di negotiator Sascha Bähring assumed on Friday that 99 percent of all buses remained in the depot. Employers considered this number to be too high.
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Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Individual bus routes ran despite the strike
According to ver.di, the warning strike in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania began as planned at 3:30 a.m. and was scheduled to end on Saturday morning when work began. Around 90 percent of all local transport is affected by the campaign, said ver.di union secretary Stefan Gillwald. According to the union, these include the Ludwigslust Parchim transport company, Nahbus Nordwestmecklenburg, the Rostock tram, the Rostock regional bus, the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania transport company, the Greifswald transport company and the Vorpommern-Greifswald transport company. Local transport in Schwerin was not affected.
According to NDR information, the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Transport Company (MVVG) was able to staff individual buses at short notice with employees from the workshop at the Friedland depot. This meant that bus connections in the Friedland region could still be served. Buses also ran in Neustrelitz, Wesenberg, Mirow and Feldberg. There were private companies here that did not take part in the strike.
Ver.di speaks of a “thundering signal”
In an initial assessment, ver.di-Nord described the work stoppages as the “most successful warning strike in recent years”. Several thousand employees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein went on strike. “This is a thunderous signal that the employees here in the north have sent,” said union spokesman Frank Schischefsky, and employers should “finally put constructive and, above all, acceptable offers” on the table.
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130 companies with 90,000 employees affected
The labor disputes in public transport affected more than 130 municipal companies nationwide with a total of around 90,000 employees and thus bus, subway and tram traffic in 81 cities and 42 districts. Ver.di complained last week that the first rounds of collective bargaining in all 16 federal states had produced no results. According to ver.di, the collective agreements in the individual countries differ in many ways. Each tariff area has developed its own requirements. But in general it is about reducing weekly working hours with full wage compensation, shorter shifts, reducing unpaid travel times, extending rest periods, increasing vacation entitlement and additional days of relief.
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