As of: February 2, 2024, 7:29 a.m
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In the collective bargaining dispute in local public transport that is ongoing in regional negotiations across the country, the Verdi union called on employees in the industry in more than 80 cities to go on a warning strike.
© Fabian Strauch/dpa
After train cancellations and canceled flights, buses, trams and subways are now staying in depots in many places.
Verdi has started a warning strike in most municipal transport companies.
Düsseldorf - There will be no trams or subways in North Rhine-Westphalia this Friday.
In many places there are only a few buses on the road.
An all-day warning strike began overnight in most local public transport companies.
The Verdi union has called on around 30,000 employees to stop work.
That's why most of the vehicles stayed in the depots.
The warning strike began as planned with the start of the shift usually between 3 and 4 a.m., said Peter Büddicker from the Verdi regional district of North Rhine-Westphalia to the dpa in the morning.
The strike participation is high.
Almost all major transport companies in North Rhine-Westphalia, such as KVB (Cologne), Rheinbahn (Düsseldorf), DSW21 (Dortmund) and the Münster municipal utility, are on strike.
“KVB is completely closed, and so are the Bonn municipal utilities.
We are satisfied,” said Frank-Michael Munkler from the Verdi district of Cologne-Bonn-Leverkusen about the strike participation at these two large companies.
However, the Aachen transport company ASEAG, whose buses run as scheduled in Aachen and the city region, is not on strike.
But RVK (Cologne), RSVG (Troisdorf), OVAG (Gummersbach) and the WVG group (Münster) are also not on strike.
Only a small part of the public buses run in the strike regions, which are already operated by private subcontractors.
The more than 30 municipal transport companies on strike nationwide provide information about which bus routes in the respective city or region can still be served on the day of the strike.
They also point out that rail traffic on the RE, RB and S-Bahn lines is not affected by the warning strike.
In the most populous federal state, millions of people have to find an alternative way to get to work or school.
Experience has shown that many employees work from home on such days.
The North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Education announced that compulsory school attendance applies despite the warning strike.
Parents have to ensure that their children come to school.
The ADAC North Rhine recommends, if possible, switching to bicycles or carpooling when traveling by car.
In large cities and on city highways, an increased risk of traffic jams can be expected on the day of the strike.
According to estimates by the Association of German Transport Companies, municipal transport companies in North Rhine-Westphalia transport around five million passengers per day.
Since these are mostly return trips, there could be around 2.5 million people affected.
The municipal transport company assumes that the work stoppages will have an impact until the start of the shift early on Saturday morning.
The background to the warning strike is the collective negotiations in North Rhine-Westphalia about working conditions in the municipal transport companies.
These are regulated in the collective collective agreement.
Verdi NRW is calling for additional days off.
The employers' association KAV NRW considers the all-day warning strike shortly after the start of negotiations to be excessive.
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Verdi emphasizes that the demands for the collective agreement have been known for a long time.
The employers, however, point out that a significant wage increase for employees of local public transport companies in North Rhine-Westphalia will take effect on March 1st.
This is also a signal to increase the attractiveness of jobs in local transport.
This wage increase had already been agreed last year.
The Aachen company ASEAG has a multi-year collective agreement.
That's why there are no work stoppages there.
dpa