The Verdi trade union has called on employees at municipal public transport companies across several German states to strike on Thursday. The states affected are Bavaria, Saarland, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg, the union announced on Monday. A decision on whether workers in Bremen and Hesse will also walk out is expected in the coming days, for Hesse, the decision is to be made following negotiations on Monday, and for Bremen on Wednesday.
This is already the third time in the current round of collective bargaining that public transport companies across multiple states have been struck simultaneously. "We have very different stages of negotiations in the different states," said Verdi Deputy Chairwoman Christine Behle. "We are therefore only calling for strikes where real pressure is needed right now." According to Verdi, agreements have already been reached in Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg.
The talks centre on working conditions, including reductions in weekly working hours and shift arrangements, as well as higher pay supplements for night and weekend work. In Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saarland, Thuringia and at Hamburg's Hochbahn, negotiations are also taking place on higher wages and salaries.
This is not the first time Verdi has called public transport workers out on strike. It is already the third time in the current round of collective bargaining that municipal public transport companies across multiple German states have been struck simultaneously, underlining the depth of the ongoing dispute between the union and employers over wages, working hours and shift conditions.
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