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No large container ships were sailing on the Elbe River near Hamburg, Germany’s biggest port, on Thursday due to a strike by port workers. The work stoppage is part of a rolling series of strikes affecting various sectors of the economy nationwide.
Only barges and small ships were moving on the waterway.
Workers at the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) began a strike on Wednesday evening, according to the Verdi trade union, and were expected to stay off work until 6 am (0500 GMT) on Friday.
The HPA had already closed the river on Wednesday morning for ships requiring pilotage, as these larger vessels would have not made it to the port in time to avoid the disruption cause by the strike.
The strike affects the so-called pilot transfer boats, without which the pilots can no longer get to their assigned ships.
A third round of pay negotiations with Verdi are starting from March 27. The union is demanding 10.5% more pay, or at least €500 ($545) more per month, for the approximately 2.5 million federal and municipal public sector workers nationwide.
The employers’ side has so far offered 5% more money in two steps and one-off payments totalling €2,500.
Meanwhile, Germany’s busiest airport, Frankfurt Airport, has cancelled all regular air traffic next Monday following nationwide strike announcements by trade unions in the transport sector,
“All tasks that enable full flight operations” are suspended due to the strike, the operating company Fraport announced on Thursday.
“Fraport therefore urges passengers to refrain from travelling to the airport.”
They said transfer services would not take place either.
According to Fraport, about 1,170 take-offs and landings with a total of about 160,000 passengers were originally planned for that day.
The trade unions EVG and Verdi on Thursday announced the joint industrial action, which comes after numerous previous strikes that have hit all parts of the German economy in recent months.
