UPDATE - German public transport workers hold strike over pay

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BERLIN (AA) - German public transport workers staged a warning strike on Friday to increase pressure on the government in an ongoing dispute over wages.

Bus, tram and metro drivers stopped work in major cities, including Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich, causing massive disruption to services.

Thousands of public transport workers participated in the strike action in the federal states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Saxony, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Bus, tram and metro services did not run in these regions for the whole day, but the S-Bahn city trains were not affected by the strikes, according to the ver.di trade union.

Christine Behle, ver.di’s deputy chairwoman, slammed the government for not making any “constructive” offer to public employees during collective bargaining negotiations last week.

"The employees will not put up with this and will now fight harder for their demands," she said in a statement.

The youth climate group Fridays for Future also supported the strike action and called for more investments in clean, affordable public transport projects.

Public sector workers have been staging walkouts in various federal states since last week after the second round of collective bargaining negotiations with the government ended without agreement.

The union, which is representing around 2.5 million public sector workers, is demanding a 10.5% and no less than €500 ($530) pay rise amid soaring inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

A new round of negotiations is planned for the end of this month.