Strikes in Germany: Buses and trains are at a standstill in North Rhine

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Trains in Cologne are at a standstill: another warning strike by Ver.di

Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa

The people of North Rhine-Westphalia are already feeling what commuters and travelers across Germany will face from Thursday: strikes at transport companies.

Another two-day warning strike by the Ver.di union in local public transport is leading to major restrictions in North Rhine-Westphalia.

At the start on Tuesday, trams and subways remained in depots as a result of work stoppages in around 30 municipal transport companies.

Experience has shown that only a small proportion of public buses operate in the strike regions.

The warning strike continued as planned on Wednesday, said Frank-Michael Munkler from the Ver.di district of Cologne-Bonn-Leverkusen.

According to union representatives, strike participation remains high.

Around 3,500 participants from the strike regions are expected at a rally in Dortmund on Wednesday morning.

The background to the warning strike in North Rhine-Westphalia is the collective bargaining over the working conditions of around 30,000 employees in municipal transport companies across the country.

Two rounds of negotiations remained inconclusive.

Ver.di NRW is calling, among other things, for additional days off in order to relieve the burden on employees and make the professions more attractive.

The two-day warning strike in North Rhine-Westphalia should be over on Wednesday evening or Thursday night at the end of each shift.

However, noticeable strikes then set in across the country.

From Thursday there will be strikes at the railways and airports

The train drivers' union GDL is starting a 35-hour strike nationwide on Thursday night at 2 a.m. on Deutsche Bahn's passenger services, which is expected to last until 1 p.m. on Friday.

The strike in the group's freight transport started on Wednesday evening.

Accordingly, there will be severe restrictions at the railway subsidiary DB Cargo until early Friday morning, as the GDL announced.

Not only on the railways, but also at airports there is likely to be a standstill from Thursday.

Because Ver.di is increasing strikes in aviation.

In addition to the industrial action among Lufthansa ground staff, the union is calling for a strike among the security forces at Frankfurt and Hamburg airports.

The union said there would be an all-day strike at both airports on Thursday in people and goods screening, cargo screening and service areas.

Hamburg Airport announced that all 141 departures would be canceled or would take place without passengers.

Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt is currently still assessing the consequences of the strike.

In the five collective bargaining rounds with the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS), Ver.di has so far failed to reach an agreement on higher wages for the industry's approximately 25,000 employees nationwide.

The talks are scheduled to continue on March 20th.

Industrial disputes among aviation security personnel have a major impact, as checks on passengers, people, goods and cargo are usually canceled.

The industrial action among the security forces runs parallel to strikes among Lufthansa ground staff.

Ver.di had already called for a strike here on Thursday and Friday.

New power relations in the labor market

The SPD parliamentary group leader in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, Jochen Ott, has warned of dwindling public support in view of the ongoing strikes in local transport, trains and airports.

Every union leader must think carefully about when the point will come where he will lose broad public support, he said on Tuesday.

The SPD politician criticized the GDL and the railways for their lack of willingness to reach agreement.

Things are different at Ver.di.

He is convinced that the willingness to reach an agreement is significantly higher in the collective bargaining conflicts in local transport and at airports.

Economist Jens Südekum sees the strikes as “harbingers of the labor market.”

In view of the labor shortage and demographic change, it is clear: "The labor factor is becoming scarcer, is therefore becoming more valuable, and is therefore also having greater power in collective bargaining." The balance of power on the labor market is now changing to some extent, said the professor of economics at Heinrich -Heine University Düsseldorf.

mmq/dpa