The German trade union ver.di has announced that public transport workers will go on strike in Lower Saxony on February 19 and 20. These are the services that will be affected:

Lower Saxony public transport strike announced

Public transport workers in Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück, Göttingen, Wolfsburg and Goslar are set to go on strike early next week, ver.di has announced.

Buses and trains will come to a standstill in these six cities, but transportation in Bremen, which is a city-state, and Wilhelmshaven will not be affected.

What is ver.di demanding for transport staff in Lower Saxony?

The strike impacts public transport services which employ workers in connection with the TV-N (Tarifvertrag Nahverkehr) collective bargaining agreement. Ver.di is currently in the third negotiating round with local transport associations and is, among other things, demanding additional holiday leave and that driving be recognised as shift work.

As with many other strikes taking place in Germany at the moment, the industrial action comes shortly before a new round of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, which in the case of transport workers in Lower Saxony, is scheduled to happen on February 22.

“At the third round of negotiations, we expect a clear offer from the employers in response to our demands and relief for employees! Otherwise, we won’t succeed in bringing about a Verkehrswende (a nationwide transition to greener transport). We need to retain employees and find new ones!” ver.di negotiator Marian Drews explained in a press release.

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