Hamburg Public Sector Workers Strike for Altersteilzeit
Strike Disrupts City Services
Hamburg’s public sector workers, including approximately 35,000 municipal employees and an additional 35,000 civil servants, engaged in a full-day warning strike on Thursday. The strike, organized by the Verdi union, aimed to pressure the city into negotiating a collective bargaining agreement on Altersteilzeit, a phased retirement program that allows employees to gradually reduce their working hours in the years leading up to retirement.
Verdi has been demanding a new collective bargaining agreement on Altersteilzeit since 2009, when an existing agreement expired. The union claims that the city has refused to negotiate, leading to the warning strike.
"If the city continues to refuse negotiations, we will extend the warning strikes next week," warned Verdi union secretary Max Stempel.
The strike caused significant disruptions to city services, including at district offices where citizens typically seek assistance.
Demonstration and Moment of Silence
Coinciding with the warning strike, a demonstration was planned for 2 p.m. on Thursday. Participants were set to march from the union headquarters through the city center to the Katharinenkirche, where a minute of silence was observed for the victims of the Munich attack.
On the previous Thursday, a 24-year-old Afghan national, allegedly motivated by Islamist extremism, drove his car into a Verdi demonstration in Munich. Two people, a two-year-old girl and her 37-year-old mother, were killed, and at least 37 others were injured.
Unique Situation in Hamburg
The warning strike in Hamburg is unrelated to the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations for public sector employees in other parts of Germany. As a city-state, Hamburg has a special status, and its municipal employees are covered by the collective bargaining agreement for state public sector employees rather than the agreement for municipal employees in other federal states.
Staff Shortages and High Workload
According to Verdi, the city currently has 5,000 unfilled positions, and staff in some areas are stretched too thin, leading to high levels of stress and sick leave. The union cited a survey of over 1,400 employees conducted in the fall of 2024, which found that more than two-thirds of respondents felt they could only partially or rarely meet their professional expectations under the current conditions.
"Citizens of this city are already experiencing long waiting times and dangerous understaffing, for example in child protection," said Stempel. "The city should do everything possible to improve these conditions quickly. That includes implementing an Altersteilzeit agreement to address the strain caused by years of working in understaffed departments."
Benefits of Altersteilzeit
Nicole Drücker, a member of the collective bargaining commission, emphasized that an Altersteilzeit agreement would make public service more attractive by allowing employees to gradually reduce their working hours in old age without facing financial hardship.
Sonja Berndt, a social worker in Hamburg’s Harburg district, highlighted the importance of Altersteilzeit for employees who experience high levels of psychological stress. "We need an Altersteilzeit agreement that primarily allows highly stressed colleagues to reduce their working hours in old age," she said.
