In Germany, rail traffic largely comes to a standstill on Friday morning as a result of a warning strike by the railway and transport union EVG. Since 3:00 a.m., employees of around 50 railway companies have been in industrial action, as an EVG spokesman confirmed in the early hours of the morning. "The shifts that are running now are now going into the strike phase." At the same time, the service trade union Verdi continues to strike at the airports of Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf - and from Friday also the airports in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden.
The strike at the railway is likely to affect commuters in particular. The extent to which after-work and weekend traffic will also be affected later in the day was initially open. Deutsche Bahn will not let long-distance traffic roll until 13:00 p.m., but the group has already warned in advance of possible disruptions into the evening hours. The resumption of regional traffic is likely to be faster after the planned end of the warning strike at 11.00 a.m.
Negotiations have been underway since February
The warning strike on Friday is the second in the current wage dispute between EVG and the railway companies. During the work stoppage on 27 March, EVG and Verdi took joint action and paralyzed several airports in the Federal Republic of Germany in addition to local, regional and long-distance public transport. For hours, nothing worked on the rails - but there was no traffic chaos on the road, for example, due to the all-day strike at the end of March. Many people obviously relied on home office or adapted differently to the failures.
Negotiations for new collective agreements have been underway since the end of February. EVG is negotiating on behalf of 230,000 employees, 180,000 of whom work for Deutsche Bahn. However, the talks with the state-owned company did not get off the ground right from the start: the first appointment ended after only two hours, and at the second meeting, according to reports, only the respective points of view were exchanged.
The union wants to achieve a wage increase of at least 650 euros for the employees or twelve percent for the upper incomes, all this with a term of the collective agreement of twelve months. The state-owned railway was recently open to adopting the latest arbitration award in the collective bargaining dispute of the public sector as an orientation for a railway-specific solution.
The arbitrator's award initially provides for a tax- and duty-free inflation compensation in several stages of a total of 3000 euros. From March 2024, there will then be a basic amount of 200 euros and then a wage increase of 5.5 percent. The unions want to negotiate the proposal with the federal government and municipalities next weekend.
Transdev tried to stop warning strike
The EDC strictly rejects the use of the arbitrator's award as a further basis for negotiations. "We need to increase the pressure on employers who think they can ignore the demands of their workers and instead want to bargain in the manner of landlords. This is unacceptable," said the two EVG collective bargaining directors Cosima Ingenschay and Kristian Loroch in justification of the new warning strike.
DB Chief Human Resources Officer Martin Seiler, on the other hand, described the warning strike as excessive and useless. "On Friday, the busiest day of the week, it hits many commuters particularly hard. The EVG has completely lost its balance and is only counting on riots," said the manager. The next round of negotiations between EVG and DB is scheduled for next Tuesday in Fulda.
On Thursday, the company Transdev tried to stop the warning strike by means of an injunction. However, the labor court in Frankfurt rejected the applications on Thursday afternoon, according to a spokesman.
At the airports of Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Hamburg, the warning strikes by security personnel that began on Thursday will continue on Friday. In addition, the trade union Verdi has also called for a strike at Stuttgart Airport. Verdi wants to increase the pressure on employers in negotiations for employees in the aviation security sector, in passenger control, personnel and goods control and in service areas. For some time now, the union has been negotiating with the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies about bonuses for night, Saturday, Sunday and holiday work as well as regulations on the remuneration of overtime for security and service forces.