With warning strikes, the Verdi union wants to paralyze local public transport in parts of Germany this Friday. The action is to take place together with the climate activists from Fridays for Future, who have called for protests for more climate protection on Friday. In six federal states, there should be massive impairments in local bus and train transport. The main areas affected are Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate.
In Lower Saxony, for example, but also in Munich, there were already severe restrictions on Thursday. In Bavaria, Verdi wants to extend the warning strikes to other regions and cities on Friday. Many citizens have been feeling the effects of warning strikes in the public sector for weeks. Verdi and the civil servants’ association dbb want to underpin their demands in the current wage round for the municipalities and the federal government.
The negotiations for the approximately 2.5 million federal and local employees had been tough since they started in January. Verdi and the civil servants’ association are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more per month.
In the second round of negotiations last week, despite an offer from the employers, there was still no rapprochement. The probably crucial third round is scheduled for the end of March. Verdi boss Frank Werneke had already said that a vote on a regular strike was “on the agenda” if the third round didn’t bring a breakthrough.
There are likely to be significant outages in many cities. In the southwest, for example, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Mannheim, Heilbronn, Ulm, Esslingen, Constance, Baden-Baden and Karlsruhe are affected. Buses and trains are also expected to stand still in the largest cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to Verdi, the focus will be on the Ruhr area and the Rhineland, but employees also want to lay down their jobs in the Münsterland and in East Westphalia.
Violent criticism of Verdi came from the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA). They criticized the union for its cooperation with Fridays for Future. This is “a dangerous border crossing,” said BDA chief executive Steffen Kampeter of the German Press Agency (dpa).
“Strikes are permitted in order to reach collective agreements that regulate working conditions.” But if you mix industrial action and general political goals with each other, you quickly end up on a playing field beyond German collective bargaining autonomy. Political or quasi-political strikes are illegal in Germany.
