Against the background of the crisis in the logistics sector, it is not only the dockworkers who have a new position of power. In Düsseldorf and London Heathrow, airport workers have won 18% wage increases. However, the workload remains; who wants to return to such a precarious, climate-destroying sector after short-time work during the pandemic? Many job positions remain open, work pressure increases.
Similar higher wage gains as in the airport sector could have been possible in the German seaports. However, the 9.4% in pay agreed for full container operations for 2022 includes special payments that do not affect the overall monthly bargained wage. The amount of the special payment has not yet been reported. For workers who do not work in the full container terminals, for example for companies handling break bulk and other goods, the wage increase in the first year is only 7.9%. However, this could affect the majority of port workers. Container terminals and container transport account for less than one-fifth of the maritime sector worldwide. In the second year of the 24-month collective agreement, the wage increase is to be 4.4%, or 5.5% if inflation is above that number. If inflation rises above 5.5%, there is a special termination clause allowing a new negotiation next year. Against the background of current developments, a new round of negotiations in 2023 is more than likely.
The German public service trade union ver.di originally demanded “actual compensation for inflation” and an increase in hourly wages of 1.20 euros for the approximately 12,000 employees in the 58 companies operating in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg covered by the collective agreement. With wages currently ranging from just under 15 to 28 euros per hour, this would have meant an increase of up to 14%. The employers offered two increments of 3.2% and 2.8% as well as a one-time payment of 600 euros.
Small earthquake
It was the first visible strike by the permanent workforce in 40 years. In recent years, only staff from the overall port operations, who are flexible workers facing worse shifts and lower wages, have been on strike. After several unsuccessful wage rounds, this time they were more successful. 12,000 workers stopped working at the ports firstly for 24 and then 48 hours. They gathered for demonstrations in Hamburg and most recently in Bremen as the negotiations were taking place. The strike hit the headlines not only because of the delivery bottlenecks, but also because police attacked the dockers’ demonstration in Hamburg in mid-July. This violent attack was not only aimed at the dockers, but at all those who dare to strike in the current phase to compensate for inflation and against the insane price increases from which energy, food and real estate companies are currently profiting.
In view of the police attack and the wave of lawsuits against the strike by the companies, a conscious offensive to deal with the state and legislation is necessary. After the 48-hour strike in mid-July, ver.di agreed to a six-week strike pause with the companies in a court settlement that amounted to a strike ban that stifled the momentum.
Unions and workers need to brace themselves for tougher attacks by the state and companies and respond to them firmly. This means discussing any reactions to lawsuits or attempts to ban strikes in open meetings of the workers, to deciding democratically and finding a united response to the attacks.
In the coming years, security strategies to defend picket lines and demonstrations against attacks by the police could become important — not only at the port. They will only be really effective if they go through elected structures in the companies and trade unions.
As many also have to work long overtime hours in the ports, they are not just concerned with compensating for inflation, but also with reducing the workload and occupational health and safety, which also add to the expenses of the companies.
Logistics in the multiple crisis
Up and down Germany, neoliberal politicians scolded the port workers. Companies feared supply bottlenecks and complained about the right to strike. However, it was not the port strike that exacerbated the crisis in supply shortages, but the system itself that is unable to sustain the circulation of commodity capital.
Corona factor: Workers in the transport sector, in particular, were among the first to be affected by the pandemic. Many fell ill, some died, leaving empty workplaces. At the same time, many transportation companies used the pandemic as an argument to cut jobs and shift the increasing turnover to fewer and fewer working bodies. Many burned out from overwork; even now, 60 hours of overtime per month is the norm in German ports. Workers do not only want more wages, they want — similarly as in the care and other sectors — to be no longer squeezed by competitive pressure between companies.
Climate factor: In Germany and elsewhere, many goods are transported by river. However, the levels of the Rhine, Elbe and Danube have fallen sharply due to the drought, and in Italy the mighty Po is now only a trickle. As a result, transportation on the rivers has been severely curtailed. There are too few railroad workers and rail networks to replace this. The climate crisis also leads to the possible flooding of ports, and overall it threatens the global circulation of goods. At the same time, port workers are forced to toil in record temperatures of over 40 degrees during Summer.
The crisis in the logistics sector is a systemic crisis. Strikes are a symptom of the increased exploitation and demonstrate the real power that workers have in economically vulnerable factories.
