Another strike in the private bus industry

Created: 01/19/2022Updated: 01/19/2022 18:51

A safety vest with the inscription "ver.di".

© Tom Weller/dpa/symbol image

The fronts in the dispute over a new collective bargaining agreement for the private bus industry have hardened.

There was no progress on Wednesday either.

This has consequences for the passengers.

Mainz – Students, commuters and other passengers of private operators in Rhineland-Palatinate are once again waiting in vain for their buses.

In the deadlocked wage conflict, the Verdi services union has called on the drivers to go on strike this Wednesday evening.

The start of the walkout "from ongoing operations" should be at 8 p.m.

"The end is not yet in sight," said Verdi negotiator Marko Bärschneider.

"The attempt to avert a strike through arbitration at the last minute was rejected by the employers," he told the German Press Agency. The employers' association VAV said: "Verdi put a gun on our chests." A new collective wage agreement has not yet been concluded, mainly because of unresolved questions about refinancing, said General Manager Heiko Nagel. In the past few months, there have been repeated failures at private bus companies.

Among other things, the union is demanding payment for downtimes, i.e. the breaks in travel during a shift, for the around 3,500 bus drivers from private companies in Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition, the shift lengths should be limited. The collective bargaining agreement was terminated in 2019. After protracted arguments, both sides had agreed on a collective wage agreement last November.

According to the union, all companies and locations of DB Regio Bus Mitte GmbH, DB Regio Bus Rhein-Mosel GmbH, Palatina Bus GmbH, Stadtbus Bad Kreuznach GmbH, MB Moselbahn mbH, VRW, MVB, Zickenheiner GmbH, BVB Verkehrsgesellschaft GmbH, Eurobus Verkehrs-Service GmbH Rheinland-Pfalz, Stadtbus Zweibrücken GmbH, koveb from Koblenz, and Orthen Reisen.

It is to be expected that the employees of other companies will participate.

"Large parts of the country are likely to be affected by the strike measures," said Verdi.

This also applies to all overland traffic in the respective regions.

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Verdi accused the Association of Employers' Associations in the Transport Industry (VAV) of providing for worse conditions in a draft for a collective agreement presented on Tuesday than in the previous agreement.

That was "blatant mockery".

The employers would have wanted to continue to negotiate "without content", said Bärschneider.

The VAV wants to “be paid far beyond that by the public purse despite the already multi-million dollar financial support from the state and the municipalities”.

"We hope that the employers will come to their senses and be willing to arbitrate or conclude the collective agreement with content as provided for in the mediation," Bärschneider told dpa.

The VAV emphasized that there was agreement with Verdi on the goal of improving working conditions for drivers.

However, the individual points would have to be negotiated without time pressure, after all, fundamental changes in the framework conditions in the industry, which was already badly hit by the corona pandemic, are at stake.

A "timely" invitation from the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Mobility is now expected to a round table, at which the two parties to the collective bargaining agreement should also be attended by the state and representatives of the municipalities.

Nagel spoke of next week or the week after next as a possible time.

dpa