Public Transport Workers Go on Strike in Germany
The disruption coincided with the arrival of freezing temperatures across many regions, forcing commuters to scramble for alternative ways to get to work. From around 3 a.m. local time on Monday, bus, tram, and subway services were halted across nearly all federal states, with Lower Saxony being the main exception.
The industrial action was organized by the Verdi trade union, which represents roughly 100,000 workers in the sector, after talks with municipal and regional transport operators stalled. The union is pushing for reduced weekly hours and shift lengths, longer rest periods between duties, and increased bonuses for night and weekend work. Employers, however, have pointed to strained city budgets as a major obstacle.
Defending the timing of the strike, a union representative said that “we can’t choose the timing of the wage dispute. Unfortunately, we can’t wait for better weather.”
Negotiators are due to return to the table on February 9. Verdi has cautioned that if employers fail to meet its demands, additional strikes could be organized.
Germany has experienced a series of large-scale labor actions in recent years, affecting long-distance trains, commuter rail networks, and major airports, as workers across sectors press for better pay and shorter working hours.
These labor tensions come against a difficult economic backdrop. The country went through two consecutive years of recession in 2023 and 2024, followed by near stagnation in 2025. In December, the central bank warned that Germany is heading toward its largest budget deficit since reunification in 1990, attributing the outlook to rising military spending and ongoing financial support for Ukraine.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has repeatedly criticized what he sees as declining productivity. He recently questioned why workers take an average of “almost three weeks” of sick leave per year and argued that “labor costs in our country are simply too high,” calling on Germans to deliver “greater economic output… through more work.”
Earlier, in August 2025, Merz said that the “welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed with what we can economically afford,” while also acknowledging that Germany’s economy had entered a “structural crisis.”
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