Buses and trams affected Verdi calls for strike at Bonn public utility company
Bonn · Those who use buses and trams in Bonn and the region will have to be ready for numerous cancellations on Tuesday. The union Verdi has called for a strike at the Bonn public utility company which operates local public transport.
The trade union Verdi has called for an all-day warning strike in the public transportation division of the Stadtwerke Bonn (SWB) for Tuesday, February 14. This was confirmed by Verdi district manager Daniel Kolle to the General-Anzeiger.
This means that no trams, above or underground, will be allowed to operate on Tuesday. Buses will also likely be cancelled, unless they are operated by subcontractors. Buses and trams are expected to resume regular service on Wednesday, February 15.
The same applies to the Cologne public transport company (KVB). Following a call to strike by Verdi, no KVB trams will run on Tuesday - and buses only if they are operated by subcontractors. Not affected by the strike are the buses of Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK), which run in the Rhine-Sieg district on the left bank of the Rhine.
KVB advises that regional express trains along with regional and suburban trains in the region are not affected by the strike. The trains of Deutsche Bahn as well as Transregio and National Express are expected to run regularly.
The reason for the warning strikes is the stalled collective bargaining for the public sector.
With the warning strikes, the union wants to push its demands in the ongoing collective bargaining dispute in the public sector of the federal government and local authorities, and persuade the employers to present an offer. In the current collective bargaining negotiations, Verdi and the civil servants' association dbb are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more for the approximately 2.5 million employees in the public service of the federal and local governments. The new collective agreement is to run for twelve months. The municipalities rejected the demands. The second round of collective bargaining is scheduled for February 22 and 23 in Potsdam.
Orig. text: Christoph Meurer, dpa
Translation: ck
