Dock workers are on warning strike in several German seaports

Dock workers temporarily stopped work not only in Hamburg, but also in Bremen, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Emden and Brake. In the port of Hamburg, the warning strike had an impact on ship handling. Many container bridges for loading and unloading ships were idle on Thursday and Friday.

8.2 percent more wages demanded

The background to the warning strike is the tariff conflict at German seaports. Most recently, the employers offered a wage increase of, among other things, 5.1 percent with a contract term of 18 months. The employees rejected the offer by a large majority. Ver.di is demanding, among other things, an increase of 8.2 percent with a term of one year.

Ver.di: “Clear message”

On Friday morning, ver.di called on employees from all companies to take part in a demonstration through the port of Hamburg - starting at the Burchardkai terminal. Despite the rainy weather, many employees came to express their disappointment with the progress of the negotiations so far. Ver.di state operations manager André Kretschmer told NDR 90.3 that they were very dissatisfied with the employer's current offer. “The colleagues are not striking for the sake of striking, but because they want to send a clear message to the employer that the offer is not sufficient,” he said.

Several areas in the port of Hamburg affected

According to ver.di's call, port workers from more than a dozen companies should stop work, including the employees of the HHLA container terminals Altenwerder, Burchardkai and Tollerort as well as the employees of the Eurogate container terminal and the entire port operations company. There were also strikes at J.Müller in Brake and Bremen as well as at EVAG in Emden, which primarily handles car handling. Employees in Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven also stopped work.

Lack of understanding among employers

The port companies in the employers' association Central Association of German Seaport Companies (ZDS) reacted to the strike call with great incomprehension. Torben Seebold, board member at Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) and negotiator for the employers, had already said before the strike was called that the limits of economic possibilities had been pushed. A collective agreement beyond this would endanger companies in the long term - and thus also jobs in German seaports.

Port workers had already stopped work for 24 hours on August 18th. As a result, the turnover of goods was slowed down and sometimes even stopped. According to ver.di, there are around 11,000 employees in the ports.