Double strike action Verdi and Fridays for Future demonstrate together in Bonn

Bonn · Buses and trams will remain largely in depot again on Friday. Verdi and the local branch of Fridays for Future are combining the warning strike with a joint demonstration and rally.

The next strike in local transport: It's that time again on Friday. Fridays for Future are planning a climate demonstration in the city centre on the same day.

The next strike in local transport: It's that time again on Friday. Fridays for Future are planning a climate demonstration in the city centre on the same day.

Foto: Benjamin Westhoff

This Friday, the buses and trams of the Bonn public utility company will again remain in the depots. Verdi and the environmental activists of Fridays for Future announce a joint action for this day, a combination of strike of the employees and climate protest.

Not only Bonn will be affected by the warning strike in public transport. According to the union, the Cologne public transport company and the Rhein-Sieg-Verkehrsgesellschaft will also be on strike from the start of operations at three in the morning until the end of operations.

Stadtwerke spokeswoman Clarissa Pütz told the General-Anzeiger that - as on the past two warning strike days - subcontractors hired by SWB will provide their services. So about every third bus trip in the Bonn city area is expected to take place. The transport company will publish a special timetable on its website.

Cooperation since 2020

This is not the first time that Verdi and Fridays for Future have joined forces. Already during the collective bargaining dispute in the summer of 2020, there was a cooperation which, according to both sides, resulted in a regular exchange. A press release on behalf of both parties stated that they were "working together for a social-ecological change in transport". The Bonn branch of Fridays for Future sees transport as "one of the central problems of the climate crisis". Emissions in this sector have risen steadily. And there is no discernible will to act to reverse the policy.

Anastasia Pütz of Fridays for Future told the GA that instead of motorways, more should be invested in the expansion of local transport. In her view, this also includes better pay for drivers.

Marion Böhm, chairwoman of the works council of the municipal utility subsidiary Bus und Bahn, was quoted in the Verdi press release as saying: "In order to be able to overcome the climate crisis, the mobility turnaround is a central building block and one of the greatest challenges in our society. Politicians must finally switch the traffic lights to green and set the right course for public transport as the backbone of the transport turnaround."

Verdi and the Komba trade union are demanding a wage increase of 10.5 per cent in the public sector, but at least 500 euros per month for a collective agreement period of one year. So far, the employers have offered a wage increase of five per cent over 27 months in two stages.

The restrictions on local transport will be accompanied by a joint demonstration march and rally by Verdi and Fridays for Future. According to Verdi, a procession is planned from 10 a.m. from the Beuel depot on Neustraße (next to the Beuel train station) to Münsterplatz. After the rally from 11.30 a.m. to 1 p.m., there will be a demonstration through the city centre. When asked how the demonstrators will get to the demonstration in view of the cancelled buses and trams, Anastasia Pütz said: "Of course you have to plan that. Within the city, you can walk or cycle. But the trains are running that day.“

The Komba union, strongly represented in Bonn's city administration, is not on strike this Friday, according to its president Christian Dröttboom. In recent weeks, there have also been work stoppages there, for example in the municipal kindergartens and at the municipal waste company Bonnorange.

(Original text: Philipp Königs; Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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