As of: March 1, 2024, 12:24 p.m
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Flags of the Verdi union fly in front of the depot of the Cologne transport company KVB.
© Oliver Berg/dpa
The Verdi union does not rule out further warning strikes in public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Representatives of Verdi NRW made this clear on Friday in Düsseldorf.
When asked about possible further warning strikes in municipal transport companies before the third round of negotiations on March 11th and 12th, Verdi NRW local transport expert Peter Büddicker said:
Düsseldorf - “We’re not ruling that out.” The Verdi NRW negotiator for local public transport, Heinz Rech, added: The union wants to create so much pressure that employers understand “we can do even harder”.
The collective bargaining dispute should be resolved at the negotiating table.
Rech criticized that the employers had not yet submitted an offer.
In the collective bargaining dispute, Verdi NRW has so far called for two one-day warning strikes at the beginning and middle of February as well as a two-day warning strike in around 30 municipal transport companies.
The two-day warning strike ends this Friday evening or Saturday night with the end of the shift.
The work stoppages had a serious impact on millions of passengers in the most populous federal state.
They affected almost all large municipal transport companies, so that trams and subways remained in the depots.
Experience shows that only a small proportion of the public buses, which are already operated by private subcontractors, travel in the strike regions.
The collective bargaining for around 30,000 employees across North Rhine-Westphalia is about the working conditions, which are regulated in the so-called collective agreement.
The first two rounds of negotiations remained inconclusive.
Verdi NRW is demanding, among other things, additional days off to relieve the burden on employees.
The professions need to be made more attractive in order to attract more young talent.
The employers pointed out that there was no great financial and personnel flexibility.
As has been agreed for a long time, salaries increased on March 1st.
The employers were optimistic that there could be an agreement on an “overall package” with the union side at the third round of negotiations in mid-March.
dpa