While rail and air traffic quickly resumed Tuesday after the 24-hour warning strike, there has been little movement at the negotiating table in the public sector wage dispute. The bargaining parties Verdi and civil servants' association as well as the federal government and local authorities were far apart in their positions, according to negotiating circles. The day before they had interrupted their conversations behind closed doors.
Most transport providers reported a quick and largely smooth restart of driving and flight operations on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, Verdi and the civil servants' association, together with the EVG railway union, brought public transport to a standstill with a nationwide warning strike. In addition to long-distance and regional rail traffic, most German airports apart from Berlin and shipping were also affected.
There was hardly any sign of that on Tuesday. Deutsche Bahn announced that only a few long-distance journeys had been canceled in the morning hours. The regional and S-Bahn had already started operating again in many places on Monday afternoon. In freight transport, too, all supply-relevant trains could have been running again during the night. The strike-related backlog at the marshalling yards should be completely resolved by Tuesday.
Again a lot of movement at the airports
Airports, including Germany's largest in Frankfurt, also resumed operations. A total of 1,118 flight movements with around 157,000 passengers were planned in Frankfurt on Tuesday, including almost 3,800 who could not have flown due to the strike, said a spokeswoman for the operator Fraport. In the morning there were around 40 cancellations. Some of these are due to the consequences of strikes.
With the warning strikes, EVG and Verdi wanted to increase the pressure on employers in their respective collective bargaining conflicts. For the railways, the next round begins on Wednesday with gradually around 50 companies for around 230,000 employees. The largest employer is Deutsche Bahn. Negotiations are to continue here at the end of April.
A railway spokesman called again to meet earlier. "We have to negotiate now and not take an Easter break," he said. "We have to come to a solution quickly at the negotiating table."
EVG collective bargaining board member Kristian Loroch responded: "We ruled out negotiations around Easter from the start." He again emphasized that no further warning strikes were planned over the holidays. For the next round, the EVG demanded significantly better offers from all companies or an initial offer at all.
Demands and offers still far apart
The EVG demands at least 650 euros more per month for all employees or twelve percent more money for the upper wage groups. Among other things, Deutsche Bahn has offered to raise wages in two steps by a total of five percent. In addition, one-time payments of a total of 2500 euros were promised. The EVG rejects this.
Verdi and the civil service association have been negotiating since Monday in the third round with the federal and local governments for the approximately 2.5 million public sector employees in Potsdam. The unions are demanding 10.5 percent more, but at least 500 euros more per month, for a period of twelve months. Employers offer 5 percent more in two steps with a term of 27 months. Municipalities and the federal government reject a minimum amount, but offer one-off payments of initially 1,500 and later another 1,000 euros.
It is unclear whether a compromise can be reached in the third round scheduled for Wednesday. At the start on Monday, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was "very confident" that there would be a solution this week.
If there is no breakthrough, the unions could hold a strike ballot on forced strikes. Public transport and numerous other areas such as daycare centers, clinics or garbage disposal could be affected again. But it does not have to lead to new strikes if both sides part ways without compromise. The day before, the head of the officials' association, Ulrich Silberbach, had speculated about a possible arbitration.
