AEven a standstill needs to be well prepared: One day after the announcement of a nationwide warning strike in the transport sector next Monday, preparations are in full swing to keep the impact on commuters and public utilities as small as possible. The background is a hitherto unique cooperation between the trade unions involved in the ongoing collective bargaining dispute in the public sector and at Deutsche Bahn.
The state-owned company will therefore stop all long-distance traffic on Monday. Massive impairments are also expected in local, air, ship and road traffic. The federal highway company is also affected by the strikes, so some tunnels have to be closed.
The effects of the industrial action will be felt from Sunday evening through to Tuesday morning, Deutsche Bahn warned and asked customers to prepare for the failures early on. The company offers “extensive goodwill arrangements” for this: All passengers who want to postpone their trips planned for Monday or Tuesday can use their ticket flexibly up to and including Tuesday, April 4th. Seat reservations can be canceled free of charge.
Rental cars are expensive on Monday
Many buses and trams will also have to remain in their depots, which is likely to lead to massive traffic chaos during rush hour. In principle, a strike does not release workers from their duty to appear at work. They therefore have to consider alternatives – and according to information from various mobility portals, they have already done so. Bookings and searches for both rental cars and long-distance buses increased significantly, according to a survey by the German Press Agency. There were also some significant price increases for rental cars.
The long-distance bus provider Flixbus also reported a “significant increase in demand” – especially since Thursday afternoon, when the railway and transport union EVG and the service union Verdi announced the cooperation in a joint press conference. In the past few days, additional buses have been planned on central routes for the day of the strike, “to cope with the increased booking volume and to transport as many travelers as possible to their destination on Monday,” said a spokeswoman. However, since the corona pandemic at the latest, many professional groups have been familiar with working from home. It is possible that many employees will therefore not even set off and will instead work from home.
Many airports are also affected
At nine airports, Verdi has called on ground workers to go on warning strikes. Affected are Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. For Munich Airport, there is also the special feature that Sunday is also a strike day there. Few or no flights will take off from the affected locations.
Frankfurt Airport has already pointed out that not only can no trips be started there on Monday, but transfers are also not possible. Even at the airports that are not under strike, such as Berlin or Hanover, travelers must expect disruptions on Monday. Domestic flights in particular are likely to be canceled there if there is a strike at the destination airport. Deutsche Lufthansa strongly advises against arriving at airports that are on strike. On site, travelers “will not be able to offer any short-term solutions”.
If the flight is cancelled, according to EU passenger rights, travelers are generally entitled to request the fastest possible alternative transport from the booked airline, which, however, should not take place until the day after at the earliest. You can also cancel the flight free of charge. However, there is no right to compensation. Passengers could only demand these payments if airline staff went on strike, but not if there was a walkout at the airport.
At least in Bremen and Lower Saxony, the warning strike day coincides with the start of the Easter holidays and also affects holidaymakers who have not yet left for the weekend. The holiday airlines Condor and TUI fly were still working on special flight schedules on Friday afternoon. On previous days of warning strikes, they had sometimes diverted flights to other airports, to which shuttle buses were sometimes used. TUI fly informed that all package travelers who have provided their cell phone number and e-mail address will be informed by SMS or e-mail from 24 hours before the trip.
The impairments in the supply of important facilities are also likely to be large. Deutsche Bahn emphasized that the freight transport division DB Cargo will do everything possible to minimize the effects of the strike. “Above all, it is important that the supply of power plants, seaports, refineries and other central industries is ensured.” In order to do this in other ways, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) spoke out in favor of the driving ban for trucks on Sunday to renounce. He asked the responsible federal states on Friday to refrain from controls.