Workers at Germany’s largest port, Hamburg in the north of the country, began a two-day strike on Tuesday to demand higher wages. Workers from the port of Bremerhaven, west of Hamburg, also joined the strike on Tuesday afternoon.
“The strike started as planned with the early shift at 6:30 am (04:30 GMT),” a spokesman for the Verdi union said.
The workers initially struck decentrally in front of their workplaces. A demonstration will take place on Wednesday, the union said.
Verdi said it wanted to increase pressure on employers in wage negotiations for seaport workers with the all-day strikes at the port of Hamburg on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The dockworkers in Bremerhaven are also planning to strike again. Some 3,200 employees from the city of Bremen and nearby Bremerhaven will shut down the port from Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for Verdi said.
Verdi is demanding an increase in the hourly wage of €3 ($3.20) retroactively from June 1 and a corresponding increase in shift allowances.
A further round of negotiations between Verdi and the Central Association of German Seaport Operators (ZDS) is scheduled for 11 and 12 July in Bremen. In June, strikes already took place in several northern German ports, including Hamburg.
