© Marcus Brandt/dpa via APPolice officers are pushed back by demonstrators after the arrest of a participant in a demonstration of port workers in front of the union building in the city center in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 15, 2022. Several participants were injured in a brief confrontation between participants and police.
The 48-hour strike, which is to end on Saturday morning, has largely paralyzed cargo handling at major ports including Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven, news agency dpa reported. It follows a 24-hour walkout in June and a previous one-shift warning strike.
However, there will be no further strikes before late August under a deal reached at the labor court in Hamburg on Thursday night, the court said. The agreement calls for the two sides to set three further dates for negotiations up to Aug. 26. Courts in several cities had rejected bids by employers for injunctions halting this week's strike.
So far, seven rounds of negotiations haven't produced any results. The ver.di union has been calling for a one-year deal that would include a raise of 1.20 euros (dollars) per hour for around 12,000 employees in Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony state, plus a 7.4% increase to balance out inflation.
The dispute comes as shipping already has been disrupted by a variety of issues, including the coronavirus restrictions in China.
Dockworkers are the teamsters of marine shipping. You go and show these despicable Scholzes, Habekses, Bärbeckses et al who is essential and who is not. Time to change from German regime to a direct democracy with public referendums. And kick those unelected murderers hiding behind their bureaucracy out of their offices.