Commuters across several German states faced major disruptions on Thursday as buses, trains and U bahns came to a standstill, with a fresh strike hitting numerous municipal public transport operators in the morning hours. A Verdi spokesperson confirmed the industrial action to the news agency AFP.
The states affected are Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, and Saxony-Anhalt. This marks the third time during the current wage round that strikes have been called simultaneously across multiple states.
According to Verdi, the ongoing negotiations cover nearly 100,000 employees working at 150 companies across all German states. The union's core demands focus on improvements to working conditions, including reductions in weekly working hours, relief from demanding shift schedules, and higher pay supplements for night and weekend work. In Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saarland, Thuringia, and at Hamburg's Hochbahn, wage and salary increases are also on the table.
Agreements have already been reached in Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg. In Hesse, negotiators reached a compromise overnight into Tuesday, according to Verdi. The union had initially also called for strikes in Saarland and Brandenburg on Thursday, however, according to Verdi, negotiations in both states are continuing and no walkouts are taking place there.
In Bavaria, Verdi expressed frustration ahead of the strikes, saying that no meaningful progress had been made with the Kommunaler Arbeitgeberverband (KAV), the municipal employers' association. The union said workers urgently needed "significant improvements in both pay and working conditions" and that it saw "no alternative" but to sharply increase pressure ahead of the next negotiating round scheduled for Monday of next week.
The KAV Bayern pushed back, arguing that the union's demands were unaffordable. "Meeting these demands would draw on public funds and would lead to significant fare increases and cutbacks in services, investment, and staffing," the employers' association said in a statement. It called on both sides to weigh workers' interests against the financial realities facing public transport operators.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Verdi's regional branch announced on Wednesday that the strike action would extend into Friday, with "state-wide full-day warning strikes" called across the state. Verdi's NRW chief negotiator, Heinz Rech, said the action was a clear signal ahead of the third round of talks. "Workers are showing, ahead of the third round of negotiations, how serious they are about their demands," Rech said. "Current working conditions mean the time between shifts is often only enough to sleep, life falls by the wayside, and so does health, as increasingly proven evidence shows."
In Hamburg, where the next round of negotiations is set to begin on Monday, Verdi accused employers of lacking the will to reach an agreement. In addition to Thursday's walkout, the union announced a further 24-hour warning strike on Saturday targeting Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH) and the Hamburger Hochbahn. According to the Hochbahn, no U-Bahn services were operating in the city on Thursday, with only an emergency bus service running.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the regional Verdi branch called a four-day warning strike running through to and including Sunday. On Thursday, the action was felt most acutely at transport operators in Magdeburg, Halle, and Dessau. Verdi accused employers in the state of presenting a "pseudo-offer" at the negotiating table. The KAV Saxony-Anhalt responded by saying the union's demands were unachievable given the tight financial constraints facing municipal budgets
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