Crucial phase: collective bargaining for dockers

Created: 08/10/2022Updated: 08/10/2022 7:23 p.m

A container carrier drives on the premises of the Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTA).

© Julian Weber/dpa/image archive

Seaport companies and Verdi have already been fighting for a new collective agreement for nine rounds of negotiations - and the tenth round is foreseeable.

After the most violent warning strikes in decades, the conflict may be coming to an end.

Hamburg - After nine rounds of negotiations and a series of warning strikes, the collective bargaining dispute over wages for dockers in the North Sea ports will enter a decisive phase in just under two weeks.

Then it will be decided whether the Verdi union and the Central Association of German Seaport Companies (ZDS) can put together a compromise package in a tenth round of talks - or whether the union may again paralyze container and goods handling with a strike by the port workers.

On Wednesday evening, according to the employer, both sides parted again, as expected, after around eight hours of online talks without an agreement.

The date for the next round, August 22nd, has been fixed for some time.

It was part of a court settlement, which also excludes new warning strikes until then.

"We have come closer in today's negotiations, but we still differ on a few points," ZDS reported on Wednesday evening.

"Based on the steps taken today, we are aiming to achieve a joint result on August 22." Verdi initially had no comment.

Both sides resumed their negotiations almost two weeks after a 48-hour warning strike by dockers at North Sea ports at the end of July.

There hasn't been such a violent tariff dispute on the quaysides in Hamburg, Bremerhaven and the other port locations on the North Sea for more than four decades.

However, both sides did not yet feel any immediate pressure to reach an agreement on Wednesday in view of the next date that had already been agreed.

It was not possible to find out what possible rapprochement steps could consist of.

At its core, the conflict is about bringing together Verdi's demand for compensation for the currently very high inflation with the employer's desire for a 24-month term.

Most recently, possible mechanisms and criteria were discussed that would enable improvements or renegotiations for the second year of the term in the event of persistently high inflation in 2023.

The union had entered the negotiations with a package of demands that, according to Verdi, would mean wage increases of up to 14 percent over a period of 12 months.

Since the beginning of July, there has been an offer from employers that has been described as "final" - but with a term of 24 months - with 12.5 percent for employees in container companies and 9.6 percent for employees in conventional companies.

The Central Association of German Seaport Companies (ZDS) estimates the offer at 5.5 percent for “employment security companies” with economic difficulties and a collective wage agreement for restructuring.

dpa