Tariffs: Large warning strike paralyzes ports on the North Sea coast

With a warning strike around the clock, thousands of port workers have largely paralyzed the handling of container and cargo ships in Germany’s major seaports.

“Emden, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Brake, Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg, the cranes and the systems are standing still everywhere today,” said Verdi negotiator Maya Schwiegershausen-Güth at a rally of several thousand port workers in Hamburg.

The employees walked out with the early shift on Thursday, and work was only supposed to continue on Friday morning. The aim was to increase the pressure on employers in the collective bargaining dispute over dock workers’ pay. “We need a strong sip from the bottle, we need a strong wage increase,” said Schwiegershausen-Güth in front of more than 4,000 demonstrators, according to the union. The police spoke of 3500 participants.

Ship jams on the North Sea are getting worse

The effects of the warning strike on the handling of container and cargo ships are likely to be significant. During the first warning strike three weeks ago, which lasted only four and a half hours, the loading and unloading of the ships had largely come to a standstill. The already tense situation with a ship jam on the North Sea worsened.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, more than two percent of global freight capacity is now stuck there due to the corona. In the German Bight alone, 15 container ships were waiting to be cleared in Hamburg or Bremerhaven, according to the latest data from Tuesday. For Germany and the EU, this means impairments in overseas trade, especially with Asia, from where consumer electronics, furniture and textiles are delivered.

Accordingly, the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd was not very happy about the warning strike and spoke of considerable damage. “Every day that a ship is, of course, costs us money, annoyed customers, consumers, seafarers and also our shore staff,” said a spokesman. The strikes contribute to the already extremely tense situation in the industry and damage the reputation of the Port of Hamburg.

hardened fronts

Despite four rounds of negotiations, Verdi and the Central Association of German Seaport Companies (ZDS) have not reached an agreement for the approximately 12,000 employees in the 58 collective bargaining companies in Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bremen. The hardened fronts were also shown by the fact that smoke pots and firecrackers were occasionally lit at the Hamburg demo. This is completely unusual for such events. The police threatened to call off the demo. The office building of BLG Logistics Group AG & Co KG in Bremen had previously been damaged after the unsuccessful fourth round of negotiations on Tuesday.

The union is demanding an increase in hourly wages of EUR 1.20 for a 12-month contract period and an increase in the annual allowance of EUR 1,200 in full container companies. In addition, Verdi demands an unspecified “actual inflation compensation”. With wages currently ranging from just under 15 euros to a good 28 euros per hour, the Verdi demands mean a salary increase of up to 14 percent.

In what it says is the “final” offer, the ZDS offers an increase in hourly wages of 1.20 euros for a tariff period of 18 months – in the car envelope by 90 cents. He also agrees to the increase of the allowance by 1200 euros. To compensate for inflation, there should be a one-time payment of 1000 euros in full container companies and 500 euros in conventional ones.

“We offered an immediately effective volume of up to 11 percent, including a permanent increase in wages of up to 7.2 percent,” ZDS negotiator Ulrike Riedel recently said. This goes beyond genuine real wage security and is well above comparable wage agreements.

“To make a worse offer in the fourth round of negotiations than in the previous round – that doesn’t make me laugh!” said the spokesman for the Verdi shop stewards at the overall port operations, Sebastian Kalkowski. “Employers need us more than we need them. And this is a very clear sign: He shouldn’t be kidding us!”

Warning strike paralyzes container port Bremerhaven

In addition to Hamburg, the second largest German container port, Bremerhaven, was also paralysed. “The port is standing still,” said Verdi Secretary Markus Westermann. He expects 2,500 port workers from all three shifts to stop working. Both container handling and the loading and unloading of car freighters were on strike.

Almost the entire workforce also went on strike in the city of Bremen and the Lower Saxony ports of Brake, Wilhelmshaven and Emden. “Operation is at a standstill,” said a Verdi spokesman in Wilhelmshaven. “The early shift pulled completely in front of the factory gate and followed the call for a strike,” said Brake. Car freighters were not handled in Emden. In Bremen, around 90 employees went on strike in the Neustädter Hafen general cargo port.