The warning strikes are to take place at the same time as a global climate strike by the Fridays for Future climate movement this Friday.

"We want to combine the global climate strike day with the 200 actions of Fridays for Future with warning strikes in local public transport," said Verdi deputy leader Christine Behle. "A transport turnaround will not be possible without investing in employees as well."

In the negotiations for the millions of federal and local government employees, the Verdi union and the dbb civil service association are demanding 10.5 percent more income, or at least 500 euros more per month. At the second round of negotiations last week, there had been no agreement. The unions had rejected an offer from the employers as insufficient.

The offer includes, among other things, a total pay increase of five percent in two steps and one-time payments totaling 2,500 euros. Behle said, "This is a slap in the face of the employees."

Employees in several German states plan to go on warning strikes on Friday. This affects Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony.

In Munich, work is even to be suspended on Thursday and Friday, as the union announced on Tuesday. In the state capital, subways, streetcars and about half of the buses will be affected from Thursday morning to Friday night. In addition, employees of local transport in the greater Nuremberg, Augsburg, Regensburg, Ingolstadt, Bamberg, Landshut and Bayreuth are also called to warning strikes for Friday.

The third and probably decisive round of negotiations is scheduled for the end of March. The negotiations have already been accompanied by warning strikes in various cities for several weeks, including work stoppages in hospitals and waste collection.

Photo by Tomas Anton Escobar