Public transport passengers in and around Düsseldorf, Krefeld and Bochum should expect significant restrictions on trams, subways and buses on Monday. Rheinbahn employees at the Düsseldorf-Benrath, Ratingen-Tiefenbroich and Mettmann depots as well as Bogestra in Bochum (Weitmar depot) and SWK mobil in Krefeld are standing still all day, as Verdi NRW announced on Sunday morning. Therefore, cancellations and delays are expected on various lines of the striking companies.
The fourth round of negotiations in the public transport tariff dispute begins on Monday
The union also announced the start of a fourth round of negotiations with employers on Monday in Dortmund. These are the working conditions of the approximately 30,000 employees of municipal transport companies. Verdi NRW is asking, among other things, for additional days off to ease the burden on staff and make professions more attractive.
The union declared that negotiations on the collective agreement had failed after the third round of negotiations in mid-March and called for a vote on indefinite strikes. In this regard, 97 percent of the union's voting members among employees were in favor of such a labor dispute, as Verdi NRW announced in midweek.
The employers present a new offer: Verdi rejects it for the moment
The business side presented an improved offer in writing on Thursday. Among other things, it provides for up to four additional days off for certain groups of employees, as announced by the municipal employers' association KAV NW. In addition, employees who replace colleagues who are absent at short notice should receive a ten percent bonus. There should also be improvements in time allocations. The municipal employers' association referred to a significant salary increase on March 1, an extremely tense economic situation for local transport companies and a difficult personnel situation.
“We interpret this offer as a sign of willingness to talk, but negotiations will continue to take place at the negotiating table and not by mail,” Verdi negotiator Heinz Rech said, according to a statement on Sunday. At the same time, the union wants to increase economic pressure on companies in the coming days and weeks. To achieve this, some local transport areas across the country would soon be called to strike, but not all at the same time. In February and March, Verdi NRW largely paralyzed public transport in the most populous federal state with several warning strike calls of one or two days each. Around 30 municipal transport companies were affected, such as KVB (Cologne), Rheinbahn (Düsseldorf), DSW21 (Dortmund) and the municipal utility company Münster.
Get informed, understand, make the right decisionsHere you can get general information about current financial news. Every Friday as a newsletter.
*Fields marked with an * are required