BERLIN (Reuters) – German buses, trams and metros were at a standstill in most of the country on Friday, the result of a widely followed strike demanding a reduction in working hours in public transport.
The movement, organized by the Verdi union, affects 14 of the 16 German Länder including the capital Berlin and is due to end Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. GMT). But it could persist on Saturday in certain territories.
The public transport strike on Friday coincided with protests led by environmental activists calling for more environmentally friendly transport in more than a hundred German cities.
This is the second wave of national protests led in recent weeks by the Verdi union, which represents some 90,000 employees from 130 municipal companies.
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The protesting union, which is demanding reduced working hours and more leave, said discussions were currently at an impasse.
Berlin public transport operator BVG denounced the move as “unnecessary and completely exaggerated”.
In a context of rampant inflation, demonstrations in the transport sector have multiplied in Europe’s leading economic power.
The railway sector could join the strike movement after the failure of negotiations on Thursday evening between union representatives and the public railway company Deutsche Bahn.
(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Bartosz Dabrowski; French version Zhifan Liu, editing by Kate Entringer)
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