The labour dispute at Germany’s seaports continues on Thursday, 3 September. Workers in Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Brake and Emden have once again been called out on strike.
In Hamburg, the walkout began with the late shift on Wednesday and is scheduled to last 48 hours. According to Verdi, employees at more than a dozen port operations are taking part. The facilities include HHLA’s Altenwerder, Burchardkai and Tollerort container terminals, Eurogate Container Terminal and Gesamthafenbetriebs-Gesellschaft.
The stoppages in Bremen and Lower Saxony will also continue until Friday evening. Workers at BLG Cargo Bremen and EVAG Emden began their warning strikes on Thursday morning.
This is the second strike in just over two weeks. On 18 August, employees at the same six port locations stopped work for 24 hours. The action disrupted cargo handling and raised concerns about potential backlogs in inland transport operations.
Eurogate: rail slots blocked for Friday
The effects on rail freight are already becoming visible at Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg.
In its rail timetable, the terminal operator refers to the 48-hour Verdi warning strike running from 23:00 on 2 September until 23:00 on 4 September. No additional volumes will be accepted on Thursday. Several trains scheduled for 3 September are still listed as “advised”.
The restrictions are more extensive on Friday, with numerous rail slots already marked “Blocked”. Eurogate gives “service cancellation/port closure” as the reason. At the same time, capacity for 4 September is shown as “very high”.
The strike is therefore affecting more than ship-to-shore operations. When containers cannot be transferred to or collected by trains as planned, disruption quickly spreads through inland logistics networks. As of Thursday morning, it was still too early to estimate the size of the backlog once the strike ends.
The second warning strike lasts longer
The first warning strike on 18 August lasted 24 hours. The current action in Hamburg is twice as long, running for 48 hours.
The latest walkout followed a workforce survey on an improved offer from the Central Association of German Seaport Operators (ZDS). Verdi said more than 6,000 employees took part in the survey, with a clear majority rejecting the proposal.
The collective agreement covers around 11,000 employees at port companies bound by collective bargaining agreements in Hamburg, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Emden, Brake and Wilhelmshaven.
Employers have improved their offer since August
The two sides remain far apart. Verdi is seeking an 8.2% increase in hourly pay, with a minimum rise of €2.50 per hour, under a contract lasting 12 months.
Since the first warning strike, the ZDS has revised its proposal. During the third round of negotiations, employers offered a 5.1% pay increase over 18 months, with a guaranteed minimum increase of €1.20 per hour. The proposal also includes an additional €150 in holiday pay and a €616 increase in the allowance for container-sector employees.
Following the workforce survey, Verdi negotiator Sylvi Krisch said:
The feedback from our colleagues is unequivocal: the offer is not enough.
The employers, however, say there is very little room for further concessions. According to the ZDS, they have already pushed their financial capacity to the limit during the negotiations. The association argues that a more expensive agreement would put the performance and long-term viability of port operators at risk.
Fourth round of talks has not been scheduled
No date has yet been set for a fourth round of negotiations. Verdi is calling on the ZDS to return to the bargaining table.
The dispute is also expected to become more visible outside the terminals on Friday. In Hamburg, the union plans a demonstration at 09:00, starting at the car park of the Burchardkai container terminal and continuing through the port. A separate demonstration has also been announced in Bremerhaven.
The warning strike will still be in progress at that point. For port and inland logistics, the scale of the disruption will depend largely on how many terminal and rail-handling operations are cancelled by Friday and how much cargo must be processed after the walkout.
