North Germany Public Transport Strike Updates: Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Now Running, Schleswig-Holstein Strike Continues

2024-02-03 06:42:42

As of: February 3, 2024 7:33 a.m

The warning strike on public transport in Schleswig-Holstein is not due to end until early Sunday morning. In Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg, on the other hand, buses and trains have been running again since this morning after a one-day shutdown.

Subways and buses in Hamburg are running again. The warning strike ended at 4 a.m. this morning, as NDR 90.3 reported. According to Hochbahn, everything should be running according to schedule again by 9 a.m. at the latest. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Rostocker Straßenbahn AG buses and trains as well as the REBUS lines have been running according to the timetable again since early morning. In Lower Saxony, the warning strike was also ended as planned at the end of operations at night.

There is a strike in Schleswig-Holstein until Sunday

In Schleswig-Holstein, however, local transport will be on strike until tomorrow. That’s why only a few buses will be on the road nationwide until Sunday.

This affects routes that are served by public bus transport (TV-N), such as the Kieler Verkehrsgesellschaft (KVG), the Stadtwerke mobil in Lübeck, the city transport in Neumünster and AktivBus in Flensburg, as well as private companies throughout Schleswig-Holstein. Ver.di negotiator Sascha Bähring assumed on Friday that 99 percent of all buses remained in the depot. Employers considered this number to be too high.

Further information

According to ver.di, the strike started at 3 a.m. on Friday and will last until Sunday morning. Private bus companies are also affected. more

Large parts of local transport in the north were paralyzed on Friday

On Friday, since the early hours of the morning, buses and trains had stopped working in large parts of northern Germany. In the collective bargaining dispute over higher salaries, more vacation days and adjustments to shift bonuses, the ver.di union called for a warning strike in local transport in all federal states – except Bavaria: usually from the start of operations at 3 a.m. until 3 a.m. this morning.

Strike at the Hamburger Hochbahn – emergency operation on line U3

In Hamburg, the Hochbahn has set up emergency operations on the U3 line in order to offer a reliable 20-minute service at least throughout the day. In addition, a few bus routes ran in emergency mode. The focus was on the lines that offer a connection to the S-Bahn, said a Hochbahn spokesman. The Hamburger Hochbahn operates bus and subway services in the Hanseatic city. The S-Bahn, which belongs to Deutsche Bahn, was not affected by the warning strike. The HADAG harbor ferries also ran, as did regional trains and the AKN bus replacement service.

Further information

The Hochbahn said there could still be outages until the morning. Yesterday operations were largely paralyzed. more

Ground staff strike at Hamburg Airport

After the warning strike by the aviation security forces and the cancellation of all departures on Thursday, another warning strike also began at Hamburg Airport on Friday morning. Ver.di had called on ground handling service providers to stop working from 3 a.m. to midnight. Long lines formed in front of the security checkpoint. However, flight operations ran normally, as an airport spokeswoman said. Only a few departures and arrivals were canceled. The spokeswoman emphasized that the reason for the cancellation of these flights was not the current warning strike in Hamburg. The airport announced on its homepage that early evening check-in was not possible on Friday either.

Further information

The ground staff at the airport went on strike on Friday. However, flight operations with take-offs and landings were largely normal. more

Lower Saxony: Six municipal companies affected

In Lower Saxony, employees of the Braunschweiger Verkehrsgesellschaft, the Göttingen Verkehrsbetriebe, Osnabus and SWO-Mobil in Osnabrück, Stadtbus Goslar, Üstra Hannover and the Wolfsburger Verkehrsgesellschaft stopped their work. The employees of Bremer Straßenbahn AG also went on strike. On Friday afternoon, Ver.di spoke of around 2,500 employees from Lower Saxony and 1,200 in Bremen who took part in the strikes, demonstrations and rallies. “The high participation of colleagues in today’s warning strikes is also an expression of how angry the public transport workers are after the employers’ proposals from the first round of talks,” said Marian Drews, who handled collective bargaining for TV for ver.di -N leads in Lower Saxony.

Further information

Buses and trains were at a standstill in many places. According to ver.di, around 2,500 people demonstrated across Lower Saxony. more

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Individual bus routes ran despite the strike

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, around 90 percent of all local transport was affected by the warning strike, said ver.di union secretary Stefan Gillwald. According to the union, these included the Ludwigslust Parchim transport company, Nahbus Nordwestmecklenburg, the Rostock tram, the Rostock regional bus, the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania transport company, the Greifswald transport company and the Vorpommern-Greifswald transport company. Local transport in Schwerin was not affected.

According to NDR information, the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Transport Company (MVVG) was able to staff individual buses at short notice with employees from the workshop at the Friedland depot. This meant that bus connections in the Friedland region could still be served. Buses also ran in Neustrelitz, Wesenberg, Mirow and Feldberg. There were private companies here that did not take part in the strike.

Further information

The service union ver.di called for the strike on Friday. more

Ver.di speaks of a “thundering signal”

In an initial assessment, ver.di-Nord described the work stoppages as the “most successful warning strike in recent years”. Several thousand employees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein went on strike. “This is a thunderous signal that the employees here in the north have sent,” said union spokesman Frank Schischefsky, and employers should “finally put constructive and, above all, acceptable offers” on the table.

130 companies with 90,000 employees affected

The labor disputes in public transport affected more than 130 municipal companies nationwide with a total of around 90,000 employees and thus bus, subway and tram traffic in 81 cities and 42 districts. Ver.di complained last week that the first rounds of collective bargaining in all 16 federal states had produced no results. According to ver.di, the collective agreements in the individual countries differ in many ways. Each tariff area has developed its own requirements. But in general it is about reducing weekly working hours with full wage compensation, shorter shifts, reducing unpaid travel times, extending rest periods, increasing vacation entitlement and additional days of relief.

Further information

The strike break until at least March 3rd is good for both sides, said GDL boss Weselsky. The railway is confident that it will now be able to reach a collective agreement. more

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