taz/dpa | Passengers in numerous German cities will have to prepare for significant restrictions on local public transport on Monday. As part of the ongoing collective bargaining round for employees in local public transport, the Verdi union has called for warning strikes at municipal transport companies in almost all federal states on this day. According to Verdi, it can be assumed that “public transport in the affected transport companies will come to a standstill”.
With the strike, the union wants to increase its pressure on employers. “Employees in public transport are under great strain due to extremely unfavorable working hours, shift work and constant time pressure,” said Verdi deputy chairwoman Christine Behle. “We urgently need improvements here in order to stop the high fluctuation and to find reliable skilled workers for local public transport again.”
According to Behle, the employers have refused almost any improvement in the negotiations so far. In some cases, according to their ideas, the burden should even be increased, for example through longer shifts or the abolition of the sick pay subsidy, complained the trade unionist. “The employer’s behavior is an attack on existing agreements,” said Behle. “This puts public transport as a public service at risk.
According to Verdi, Lower Saxony is initially not affected by the warning strikes. The peace obligation still applies to the approximately 5,000 employees in Lower Saxony. The S-Bahn trains are not affected in any case, as they are operated by Deutsche Bahn.
Better working conditions demanded
The union negotiates for almost 100,000 employees in almost 150 urban transport companies and bus companies in the districts and in the city states of BerlinHamburg and Bremen. The general collective agreements on working conditions in public transport companies were terminated in advance in 15 federal states, as were the in-house collective agreements of the Hamburger Hochbahn and the Hamburg-Holstein transport company (VHH).
In the negotiations, Verdi is primarily demanding significantly better working conditions. The core demands on employers in several federal states include: shortening weekly working hours, shortening shift times, extending rest periods and increasing bonuses for work at night and on weekends. However, since the respective collective agreements differ in many areas, there is no nationwide uniform catalog of demands.
So demands Verdi in Berlin, where it already exists a tough industrial dispute last year for higher wages, including the introduction of the 35-hour week with full wage compensation and 3 more days of vacation, which would mean a total of 33 days of vacation. In Baden-Württemberg, however, the focus is on increasing overtime, night work, Saturday and Sunday surcharges. “In this round of collective bargaining, our aim is to reduce the burden or balance it fairly,” said Verdi Vice President Behle.
Due to the peculiarities of the collective agreements there, higher wages and salaries are also being negotiated in Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saarland, Thuringia and at the Hamburger Hochbahn, according to the union. Here too, the demands are not uniform. This is what Verdi demands Bayern a wage increase of 668.75 euros, in Thuringia of 300 euros.