Many public transport buses and trains are expected to remain in the depots on Friday. Verdi announced warning strikes in local public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia and other federal states.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Verdi has announced extensive warning strikes in local public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia for Friday. A focus is the Ruhr area from Duisburg to Dortmund, said a spokesman for Verdi NRW on Tuesday. He named the Rhineland as a further focus. “We expect a high strike participation and over 10,000 strikers nationwide on Friday,” he said.
The Verdi district of Westphalia has already announced that it will call on employees of the Dortmund-based company DSW21 to go on a warning strike on Friday. According to an overview of the Verdi state district, warning strikes are also planned at the Cologne transport company (KVB) and at SWB in Bonn, the Rhein-Sieg transport company (RSVG) and the Wupsi local transport company in Leverkusen.
With the warning strikes in local public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia and other federal states on Friday, Verdi wants to increase the pressure in collective bargaining for the public sector in the municipalities and the federal government.
The warning strikes are to take place at the same time as a global climate strike by the climate movement Fridays for Future this Friday. “We want to combine the global climate strike day with the 200 actions of Fridays for Future with warning strikes in local public transport,” said deputy Verdi boss Christine Behle in Berlin. “A traffic turnaround will not be possible without investing in employees as well.”
The employers had presented an offer during the nationwide negotiations for employees in the federal and local governments. It includes a pay increase of five percent in two steps and one-off payments totaling 2,500 euros. The unions rejected the offer as insufficient. Verdi and the civil servants’ association are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more per month. Collective bargaining is scheduled to continue on March 27th.
Behle said about the offer: “It’s a slap in the face to the employees.” For the six federal states in which the employees want to go on warning strikes on Friday, the collective agreement of the public service in local transport applies.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the wave of warning strikes continued on Tuesday. One focus of Verdi’s campaigns was in the greater Düsseldorf area. “All wheels stand still here,” said Stephanie Peifer, spokeswoman for the Düssel-Rhein-Wupper district, on Tuesday morning. Local transport, daycare centers, garbage disposal or street cleaning in Düsseldorf, Solingen, Wuppertal and Remscheid are affected. 6,000 strikers took part in a rally in Wuppertal. The trade union had also called for warning strikes in the western Ruhr area, in East Westphalia and in the Aachen city region.
According to the Rheinbahn, the company’s entire network was affected on Tuesday: Düsseldorf, Meerbusch, the Mettmann district as well as connections to Duisburg, Krefeld, Neuss and Ratingen. According to Verdi, the warning strike should again last around 24 hours. The local transport union has called for a two-day warning strike at the Rheinbahn on Tuesday and Wednesday. According to the Rheinbahn, the entire network is also affected on Wednesday. However, the company is trying to make journeys possible on some subway and bus routes.
There were also warning strikes in Oberhausen on Tuesday. For example, waste incineration, daycare centers and local transport were affected, said a spokesman for the Verdi district of Ruhr-West. Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn airports returned to normal operations on Tuesday. The two largest NRW airports were affected by a warning strike on Monday with a total of hundreds of flight cancellations.
