Image: Matthias Hiekel (dpa central image)
Unions want to paralyze large parts of public transport. The warning strike is organized by the railway and transport union (EVG) and Verdi, both organizations announced on Thursday in Berlin. Verdi is calling on 120,000 workers in the transport and infrastructure sectors to take part in industrial action.
“There will be severe delays throughout Germany, with traffic services in all the areas mentioned coming to a standstill,” it said. “This day of strike will have a massive effect,” said Verdi boss Frank Werneke on Thursday in Berlin.
Unprecedented warning strike action
The long-distance, regional and S-Bahn transport of Deutsche Bahn and other railway companies are affected by the unprecedented warning strike. Verdi is also calling for walkouts at several airports and in local public transport in the federal states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria. The highway company is also said to be on strike, as is the water and shipping administration.
According to the EVG, the railway companies Transdev, AKN, Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen, erixx, vlexx, eurobahn and Die Länderbahn are affected on the rails in addition to Deutsche Bahn. “The all-day strike usually begins on the night of March 26/27 at 00:00 and ends at 24:00,” both unions said.
According to the unions, the warning strikes at airports affect negotiations for public sector employees on the one hand, local negotiations for ground handling employees on the other and Germany-wide negotiations for aviation security employees on the other.
The warning strike will hit hundreds of thousands of flight passengers. “Around 380,000 business and private travelers will not be able to take their flight,” the association told the German Press Agency in Berlin on Thursday. The ADV spoke of “strike escalation based on the French model”. An entire country is cut off from international air traffic.
With the actions, Verdi is increasing the pressure for the third round of negotiations with the federal and local governments, which begins on Monday. Together with the civil servants’ association dbb, the union for the public sector is demanding 10.5 percent and at least 500 euros more wages. Verdi is negotiating for the approximately 2.5 million public sector employees at the federal and local governments, including those working in local transport and at airports. The EVG negotiates for around 230,000 employees at 50 train and bus companies and insists on 12 percent more wages, but at least 650 euros more per month.
The employers submitted an offer in the second round of negotiations at the end of February. Among other things, it includes a pay increase of five percent in two steps and one-off payments totaling EUR 2,500.
At the end of February, EVG began negotiations with Deutsche Bahn and around 50 other railway companies. The union had rejected an initial offer from Deutsche Bahn last week.
Local and long-distance transport as well as airports all over Germany were struck more than 30 years ago in the course of a strike that lasted several weeks. During this hard industrial dispute in the public service in the spring of 1992, several hundred thousand employees temporarily stopped working. However, this was a regular industrial action, not a warning strike.
Source: Nachrichten
