Warning strikes in the ticker: The warning strike on Wednesday also affects buses and trains

nearest warning strike in local transport, Regiobus is to meet in Hanover

Wednesday, April 26, 07:16: Passengers on a number of bus lines in and around Hanover have to prepare for cancellations and delays on Wednesday. As part of renewed nationwide warning strikes in local public transport, the Verdi trade union called on employees of Regiobus Hannover GmbH to stop working from the start of operations until the end of operations. According to the announcement, the depots in Burgdorf, Eldagsen, Mellendorf, Neustadt and Wunstorf are affected in addition to the central administration in Georgstrasse. The workforce therefore wants to meet for meetings. Campaigns are also planned in other federal states such as Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia.

EVG rejects another offer – Bahn should add on Tuesday

4.40 p.m.: In the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Bahn, the EVG union rejected another offer from the group. The employer side should now “make improvements during the day”, demanded negotiator Kristian Loroch on Tuesday afternoon in Fulda. The offer is non-negotiable.

In the talks, which lasted several hours, Deutsche Bahn had suggested 10 percent more for the lower and middle wage groups and 8 percent for the upper wage groups. In addition, there is to be a tax and duty-free inflation compensation premium totaling 2,850 euros in stages.

“This is a huge package that is based on the volume of the public service,” argued HR Director Martin Seiler. “Our railway-specific offer also includes a strong social component, in that we increase the salaries of the lower and middle wage groups particularly sharply.” Accordingly, both collective bargaining parties withdrew on Tuesday afternoon for internal consultations. “We are there, we are ready to negotiate and we are ready to find a solution,” stressed Seiler.

According to the EVG, the offer means at least around 150 euros more per month for each employee. However, the union demands 650 euros more or twelve percent for the upper income groups and a term of one year.

According to the union, the crux of the negotiations remains the question of the minimum wage. The topic has still not been clarified, said Loroch. A few thousand employees only receive this from the company in the form of bonuses.

In which cities there are no buses or trains on Wednesday

Tuesday, April 25, 6:23 a.m.: After the Berlin-Brandenburg and Hamburg airports went on strike on Monday, a strike in public transport is to continue in a total of five federal states on Wednesday. This is intended to increase the pressure in collective bargaining.

The warning strike begins on Tuesday night at midnight sharp. The end then occurs 23 hours later after the end of the original late shift.

Here you can find out in which cities local transport will be paralysed.

Warning strike on Wednesday also affects buses and trains in the southwest

4.45 p.m.: In several places in the southwest, passengers must expect restrictions in local transport on Wednesday. The Verdi union called on the employees of SWEG Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-GmbH to go on an all-day warning strike that day.

According to a union spokesman, 1,800 employees in Baden-Württemberg have been asked to lay down their jobs. The union assumes that this can lead to impairments in bus traffic in the Kraichgau Wiesloch, Hohenlohe, Main/Tauber, Mittelbaden, Markgräflerland, Weil am Rhein, districts of Zollernalb, Sigmaringen, Reutlingen, Biberach and Tübingen. In addition, the rail traffic of the networks of Ortenau, Ulmer Stern, Zollernbahn and Black Forest Ring is affected.

The union is demanding an increase in wages and salaries of 550 euros per month for the employees over a period of twelve months. Trainee remuneration is to increase by 250 euros. In a first round of negotiations on April 17, the employers submitted a lower offer. Verdi is also demanding better working conditions in order to counteract the shortage of staff in the companies.

In addition to the actions in Baden-Württemberg, warning strikes are planned in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. With 2,800 employees, Baden-Württemberg has the majority of those who fall under the railway collective agreement (ETV), said a union spokesman. 1800 of them are with the SWEG and are therefore called upon to go on a warning strike. According to Verdi, around 5,000 employees nationwide are covered by the collective agreement.

The approximately 40 companies are not covered by the collective agreement for the public service of the federal government and the municipalities. They also have nothing to do with the current rail wage negotiations, which are currently being conducted by the railway and transport union EVG. The small railway collective agreement has grown historically, said a union spokesman.

Short-term warning strike at Hamburg Airport – departures canceled

8:44 a.m.: The Verdi union called for a day-long warning strike at Hamburg Airport on Monday. Hamburg Airport announced early in the morning that 31 of 160 departures had already been cancelled. According to the airport, flights to Zurich, Frankfurt, Brussels, Helsinki and Malaga were affected. The around 300 employees of the handling service provider Aviation Handling Services Hamburg GmbH (AHS), who are responsible for check-in and boarding, among other things, have been called to the warning strike.

AHS looks after various airlines, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. The employees were originally supposed to take care of 84 departures on Monday. Due to the warning strike, there could be further cancellations and significant delays on the flights managed by AHS, the airport said.

All airlines had planned 160 departures in Hamburg today. Flights serviced by other service companies are not affected. Arrivals are also expected to go as planned. The staff at the check-in and boarding desks are employees of private service providers who take care of the services for flight passengers on behalf of the airlines.

According to Verdi, the background to the warning strike is the unresolved wage dispute at AHS. The entry-level wages are currently at the level of the statutory minimum wage. The offer from the ground handling service provider, in which Hamburg Airport holds a 49 percent stake according to the union, is only 14 euros for 2023. Other ground handling service providers at Hamburg Airport pay a minimum wage of 15 euros, which the Verdi collective bargaining commission also demands for AHS.

Collective bargaining at AHS has been going on since January of this year. According to the information, there is currently no date for a further hearing.

Hamburg Airport has been the target of warning strikes several times this year. Most recently, warning strikes by security inspectors on Thursday and Friday largely paralyzed Hamburg Airport.

The security staff at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport also stopped work on Monday. Shortly after the warning strike was announced, the airport announced that no passenger flights would take off on Monday.

The general manager of the airport association ADV, Ralph Beisel, criticized the warning strikes: “Again, the airports are the most affected, although they are not involved in the negotiations and are not a collective bargaining party.”

Warning strike at Berlin Airport – No departures on Monday

Monday, April 24, 7:15 a.m.: No passenger flights will take off from Berlin Airport this Monday due to a warning strike. Some of the arrivals of planes are also affected and are cancelled. The Verdi union called on employees in the aviation security area, in passenger control and in personnel and goods control to stop working from 3.30 a.m. to midnight. The airport then announced that no passenger flight could take off.

Almost all of the approximately 240 originally planned departures were already canceled on the airport’s website on Sunday. Some of the approximately 240 planned arrivals of aircraft, for example from Ryanair, KLM and Air France, were also said to have been “cancelled”.

According to the airport, the respective airline decides whether planes will arrive. Passengers should check with the airlines. The airport assumes that some of the landings will be canceled because the planes can no longer take off with new passengers and continue flying after their arrival.

The reason for the airport warning strikes on Thursday, Friday and Monday are negotiations on surcharges for night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work and regulations on overtime pay for security and service staff. Talks have been going on between Verdi and the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS) for some time.

“We once again urge the BDLS to submit a negotiable offer on April 27th and 28th and not to play for time, otherwise there is a risk of further strikes in air traffic in May and at Pentecost,” said Wolfgang Pieper from the Verdi trade union saturday with

The airport association ADV appealed to the collective bargaining partners to seek an agreement at the negotiating table. “An all-day strike that isolates the capital’s airport from international air traffic has long since had nothing to do with a warning strike,” the association said in a statement. Because of the short-notice announcement, the passengers affected hardly had a chance to “look for alternative travel options”.

It is the third major warning strike this year at Berlin Airport. As early as March 13, a work stoppage prevented all departures, the reason being the negotiations about surcharges for security personnel. During a warning strike on January 25, Verdi stopped all commercial air traffic. At that time, employees of the airport company and the ground handling services went down with the security personnel. In the meantime, collective agreements have been concluded for these two groups.

Operations at Hamburg Airport are back to normal after the warning strike

Sunday, April 23, 5:46 p.m.: After a two-day warning strike by security inspectors, operations at Hamburg Airport resumed at full speed over the weekend. While on Saturday the aftermath of the warning strike still led to overcrowded terminals and heavily loaded flights, regular operations were expected again on Sunday, according to an airport spokeswoman.

Many travelers, especially those returning from Schleswig-Holstein at the end of the Easter holidays, had to rebook their canceled flights to Saturday. Therefore, the airlines had organized around a dozen additional flights for Saturday. A total of around 35,000 arriving and departing passengers visited the airport on Saturday. This has meanwhile led to longer waiting times at the security checkpoint and individual flight delays. After such days of warning strikes, this is nothing unusual at all airports.

The Verdi services union had asked employees in the aviation security sector to stop working for two days. According to the airport, none of the planned departures and only a few arrivals could take place because the passengers were unable to pass through the passenger checkpoint. In addition, there was a nationwide warning strike by the railway and transport union (EVG) on Friday, leaving travelers with few alternatives.

According to the airport, each warning strike day costs the Hamburg Airport Group an average of just over half a million euros.

No departures at the capital’s airport BER on Monday

2:19 p.m.: Due to the announced warning strike, no passenger flights will be able to take off from Berlin-Brandenburg Airport on Monday. Arrivals could also be affected, the respective airline decides on this, an airport spokesman told the German Press Agency on Saturday.

You can read more information about the warning strikes on the following pages.