The ver.di union has called for warning strikes in local transport on Friday. Where do passengers have to adapt to restrictions on buses and trains – and where not? An overview.
There will be significant restrictions on passengers in around 80 cities on Friday: buses, subways and trams will then mostly have to stay in the depot all day. The ver.di union has announced all-day warning strikes in local public transport in almost all federal states. Bavaria is excluded because there are currently no negotiations there.
The background is parallel collective bargaining in public transport. The first rounds of talks have ended everywhere. There are no results. The time has therefore come to put more pressure on employers, said ver.di deputy federal chairwoman Christine Behle.
This means that passengers face restrictions, especially in rush hour traffic. According to ver.di, more than 130 municipal companies in around 40 districts and a total of 90,000 employees are affected by the collective bargaining round. The core demands in most federal states include more vacation per year and a limit on shift lengths, with more rest time between shifts. However, the demands differ in the details.
Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg
In Hamburg More than 2,000 employees of the transport company VHH are to stop working full time. This is what the responsible department head of the ver.di Hamburg district said, Irene Hatzidimou.
The buses mainly serve the Hamburg area in Schleswig-Holstein and the outskirts of the city, but also go to the center. ver.di has not yet decided on a warning strike at the Hamburger Hochbahn. A new collective agreement is to be negotiated there in the current collective bargaining round. ver.di also wants to submit its own offer. Only then will a decision be made, said Hatzidimou.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Ver.di press spokesman Frank Schischefsky wanted for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have not yet confirmed concretely that there will be a strike on Friday. It could also be Saturday or Sunday. The union wants to announce on Tuesday afternoon when, how and where it is calling on its members to stop work.
Bremen and Lower Saxony
According to ver.di, six municipal companies in Lower Saxony and one in Bremen are affected. In Lower Saxony, the employees of the Braunschweiger Verkehrsgesellschaft, the Göttingen Verkehrsbetriebe, Osnabus and SWO-Mobil in Osnabrück, Stadtbus Goslar, Üstra Hannover and the Wolfsburger Verkehrsgesellschaft are to stop their work, and in Bremen the employees of the Bremer Straßenbahn AG are to stop working. A central rally is planned in Hanover on Friday.
Berlin and Brandenburg
In Berlin The union announced that the warning strike would last from the start of operations early in the morning until 10 a.m. Restrictions must also be expected beyond this. In Brandenburg, public transport is on strike all day long. “We are sure that this industrial dispute will clearly show how serious our colleagues are,” said negotiator Jeremy Arndt. The company said it was “irritated” by the union’s announcement. “In view of the constructive discussions, we consider warning strikes in Berlin to be inappropriate,” said the BVG.
North Rhine-Westphalia
The warning strikes are expected to begin on Friday morning. In addition to commuters, students who usually travel to their schools by public transport are also affected by the warning strikes. The NRW Ministry of Education pointed out that despite the all-day warning strike, school attendance was compulsory.
The ADAC North Rhine advises commuters to use bicycles if possible or to carpool if they have to use a car. An increased risk of traffic jams can be expected in large cities and on city highways. Some of the employees will work from home because of the warning strike.
According to the union, the strike affects, among others, the Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft, the Rheinbahn (Düsseldorf), WSW mobil (Wuppertal), Stadtwerke Solingen GmbH (Solingen), Stadtwerke Remscheid GmbH (Remscheid), the Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe, Stadtwerke Bonn GmbH (SWB), the Ruhrbahn (Essen) and the Münster municipal utilities.
Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia
In Saxony, ver.di is calling the employees of the municipal transport companies in Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig, Plauen and Zwickau on Friday for an all-day warning strike. In Saxony-Anhalt, the municipal transport companies in Dessau, Halle, Magdeburg and the Burgenland district are on strike.
In Thuringia, the municipal transport companies in Erfurt, Gera, Jena, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, Sondershausen, Suhl/Zella-Mehlis, Weimar, the Weimarer Land district and the Saale-Holzland district are affected.
Hesse
The cities of Kassel, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt and Offenbach were mainly affected, ver.di said Hesse with. Drivers of buses, provided they are publicly operated, as well as subway and tram drivers are called to strike.
Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate
In Baden-Württemberg, according to the union, employees of the municipal transport companies in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Heilbronn, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, Esslingen and Konstanz have been called on to stop work. Ver.di expects that there will be no buses or trains operated by the striking transport companies in these cities throughout Friday.
This affects all operations and locations of KRN-Kommunalverkehr Rhein-Nahe GmbH, Mainzer Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH, Stadtwerke Pirmasens Verkehrs-GmbH, SWK Stadtwerke Kaiserslautern Verkehrs-AG and SWT AöR of the city of Trier.
A central strike rally is scheduled to take place on Friday from 11 a.m. on the Theodor Heuss Bridge between Mainz and Wiesbaden. Strikers from Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as from Baden-Württemberg and Saarland will come together there.
Saarland
Already from Thursday evening There is a strike here, which affects, among others, the bus division of the Saarbahn and the Saarbahn Netz GmbH in Saarbrücken, the Neunkircher Verkehrsgesellschaft (NVG), FSN Fahrzeugservice Neunkirchen, the Völklinger Verkehrsbetriebe (VVB) and the roundabout traffic companies Saarlouis (KVS) and Lebach as well as the subcontractors in the respective companies.