The Verdi union has called on its members for further all-day strikes on local transport in certain cities and regions in North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday. Selected depots in Geilenkirchen (Westverkehr), in the Rhein-Erft district (REVG), Mönchengladbach and Viersen (NEW Mobil), Gelsenkirchen (Bogestra), Essen (Ruhrbahn), Lüdenscheid and Plettenberg (MVG), Bielefeld (Mobiel) are to be on strike. and Gütersloh (Gütersloh city bus), as Verdi announced on Monday.
Cancellations and delays are to be expected on bus and tram lines. Verdi spoke of “effective strikes” with which they wanted to maintain the pressure on employers.
Already on Monday, an all-day strike in the depots of the municipal transport companies in Krefeld, Düsseldorf and Bochum caused cancellations and delays, especially in bus transport. “Bus traffic in Bochum has almost come to a complete standstill,” said union secretary Michael Hortig. There was a strike at the Bogestra central bus depot. Surrounding towns were also affected. But trams ran.
In Krefeld, a Verdi spokeswoman expected cancellations and delays on the Stadtwerke Krefeld (SWK) bus routes this morning. The municipal company spoke of severely restricted local transport. Trams remained in the depots.
There was a strike at three depots on the Rheinbahn in Düsseldorf. Almost exclusively bus routes were affected. The Rheinbahn announced that most of the trams and subways should run as usual.
The collective bargaining dispute is about the working conditions of the approximately 30,000 employees in the municipal transport companies. Among other things, Verdi is calling for additional days off to relieve the burden on staff and make the jobs more attractive. A fourth round of negotiations with employers was scheduled to begin in Dortmund on Monday.
“Our pinprick strike measures are not aimed at the passengers, but at the companies,” emphasized Verdi negotiator Heinz Rech, according to the statement. “Many of the employees are putting off overtime that cannot be reduced due to the lack of staff and sickness rates of up to 20 percent.”
The employer side recently presented a new offer, including up to four additional days off for certain groups of employees. The municipal employers’ association KAV NRW also points to a salary increase on March 1st, an extremely tense economic situation and a tight personnel situation.
The offer is “a signal of willingness to talk, but negotiations will continue to take place at the negotiating table and not by post,” emphasized Verdi representative Rech. In February and March, Verdi largely paralyzed public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia with several warning strikes lasting one or two days each.
