Portside

While employers and the capital side of the equation like to spin the hallucination of a highly – or even over-regulated – labor relations system in Germany, the reality is quite the opposite.

Within Germany’s supposedly tightly regulated labor relations, union busting is alive and well. And Hamburg Airport is no exception. Yes, this is the Hamburg from which the Hamburger meal originated.

At Hamburg Airport, management’s anti-union strategy has been to put unionists out in the cold – quite literally, as Hamburg can be very cold in autumn.

Only a few weeks ago, a subsidiary of Hamburg Airport was fighting a worker who had been active in a trade union for just a few weeks.

Though such retaliation is unlawful in a country governed by supposedly strict labor laws – complete with its own labor courts (“Arbeitsgerichte”) – it still happens.

The targeted union officer feels the pressure. Meanwhile, ground staff on the tarmac of Hamburg Airport are increasingly unionizing.

A recent court decision by Germany’s Arbeitsgericht allowed union officer Ramazan to return to work – or at least, that’s what Hamburg’s local labor court ruled.

Germany’s powerful service workers’ union Ver.di – with 1.9 million members – represents workers at Hamburg Airport and filed a formal complaint against management.

Yet despite the court verdict in Ramazan’s favor, the employer – a company deceptively named Groundstars (well, no stars here) – refuses to let Ramazan return.

Management attempted to justify Ramazan’s exclusion with vague “complaints” allegedly made by others.

Ramazan works as a shift supervisor in baggage handling. But at the Hamburg-Barmbek labor court, it became clear just how many colleagues stand in solidarity with him.

Even before the trial began, more than 40 people gathered for a union-organized solidarity meeting outside the courthouse.

Almost all of them attended the hearing. The courtroom was packed, with many standing due to lack of seats.

The judge, clearly surprised, remarked that she would have arranged a larger room had she anticipated the turnout. Ramazan wasn’t just anyone.

That becomes even clearer when speaking with his colleagues. Take Goran, for example, who has been loading luggage at Hamburg Airport for 38 years – he’s solidly behind Ramazan.

Another worker, Djuric, said, “we didn’t get anything for a long time … then Ramazan came.” Ramazan is active in the union. Workers note that he’s “a combative guy.” He even gave speeches at the rally and shook hands with many of his colleagues.

Ramazan has long been a trade unionist, a works councilor, and a member of Ver.di’s collective bargaining commission. He’s been deeply involved in local negotiations for ground and tarmac workers at Hamburg Airport.

He’s worked at Groundstars since 2014 and has been a shift supervisor since 2023. “Employers have a serious problem when management starts fighting its own people,” he said at the rally. The crowd applauded.

Ramazan and his colleagues work around the clock in a 24/7 shift system. They load and unload aircraft, clean them, and transport luggage, cargo, and passengers.

Roughly 1,500 workers at Hamburg Airport are employed not directly by the airport, but by three subsidiaries of Hamburg’s Flughafen GmbH.

51% of the airport is owned by the city of Hamburg. This is a classic example of a neoliberal PPP (Public-Private Partnership) – where profits go to corporations while risks fall on the state.

Capitalism works so much better when the state foots the bill. Forget the Sunday speeches about the “free market.”

Such PPP arrangements give management a false sense of corporate power – forgetting that 51% of the airport is publicly owned.

Buoyed by this illusion, management has long kept workers content with dumping wages – the very foundation of Germany’s infamous wage stagnation.

Trying to catch up with inflation, the once-staggeringly low starting wage has doubled over the past decade: from €8 (around $9.40) to €17.68 (around $20.10) per hour.

Ramazan and Ver.di are convinced the union is a thorn in the employer’s side. Ver.di sees Groundstars’ actions for what they are: deliberate, willful union busting.

Management’s attack on Ramazan is nothing short of punitive retaliation. It’s also meant to intimidate the works council.

Democratically elected parliamentarians in Hamburg have taken a similar view. They’re calling on the city – the majority owner of the airport – to stand up for worker rights.

Of Hamburg’s all parliamentary seats, the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) holds 45, while the Greens hold 25 – a solid 70-seat majority. Meanwhile, the socialist Die Linke has 15 seats, the conservative CDU holds 26, and the neo-fascists hold 10.

With such a clear majority, Hamburg’s social-democratic-environmentalist city government “could” support workers like Ramazan.

But the city’s economic affairs agency – the Wirtschaftsbehörde – refuses to comment and simply refers questions to the airport itself. That the SPD hesitates to support workers is nothing new – it dates back to 1918/19.

Worse still, Groundstars denies all accusations of union busting. Yet Ramazan and colleagues say they’ve faced discrimination for years because of their union involvement.

Another union member – a former colleague – was also fired and is currently fighting his case in court. Ramazan, however, wasn’t formally fired. Instead, management claims he was “released from duty” – with full pay.

In court, the company’s lawyer said there were “serious allegations” against Ramazan that needed investigation – including claims of fraud, discrimination, threats, and shift allocation issues. But due to “whistleblower protection,” they couldn’t provide details or name any witnesses.

The lawyer rejected the “union busting” accusation outright. “We’re only interested in his role as shift supervisor,” he said. Ramazan’s lawyer strongly disagreed. The allegations were vague and unsubstantiated. 

The judge agreed with the union’s position. “You have said too little,” she told the company. The court ruled in Ramazan’s favor and ordered the company to pay legal costs of about €4,000 ($4,700).

Yet despite the verdict, Groundstars management continues trying to sidestep the court’s decision. Ramazan and the union keep fighting.

In the second snapshot, a strike took place at a meat factory that supplies kebab shops – a Dönerfabrik. Workers are pushing for their first-ever collective agreement, together with Germany’s food workers’ union NGG (180,000 members).

The factory’s name is Birtat Meat – supplier to thousands of kebab shops across Germany and Europe.

Despite rain and wind, the factory was on strike in Murr – a town of 6,600 people, about 30 km north of Stuttgart.

On one strike day, nearly all workers assembled outside the factory, marching through the industrial park with banners, flags, and umbrellas.

It was their ninth strike, and spirits were high. There were videos of earlier actions, speeches in multiple languages, dancing, and music – including Turkish hits by Ömer Faruk Bostan.

Their goal: Germany’s first collective agreement in the kebab meat industry. Birtat has operated in Murr since 1998. Union organizing began a year and a half ago. Izzet, a worker of 25 years, was among the first to join NGG.

“We want justice and equal pay,” he said. Over 100 Birtat workers have joined the union. 

Germany’s meat industry is plagued with corporate scandals – poor safety, wage theft, dehumanizing housing for migrant workers. 

And while kebabs get pricier, wages stay flat. Meanwhile, Birat’s works council was elected in September 2024. Of 127 workers, 114 participated in the election.

One council chair is Muzayfe Doganer, who represents workers. Paradoxically, he can’t strike as a works councilor. Though, he can strike as a union member. German labor law has quirks and peculiarities.

Doganer says management tries to intimidate workers. He’s even been personally threatened. “There were months I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

Birtat management categorically rejects a collective agreement. Instead of working with the union, they tried to bypass the union and negotiate directly with the works council – a common divide-and-conquer tactic.

NGG demanded a flat €375 monthly wage increase and a €3,000/month starting salary. Until now, wages were arbitrarily set by management – the classic:

“Together we bargain, alone we beg.”

The workforce is multicultural and multilingual – and fully represented in the union. Everything during strikes is translated into German, Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Kurdish. Despite language barriers, solidarity is strong. “It gives us strength,” say unionists.

But during the strike, Romanian workers in company-provided housing were harassed by management. When union officials visited, managers tried to play it off as a “routine check.”

A recent vote asked whether to continue striking – results pending. Doganer and others say: “We are not afraid. We stand together. We stay strong.” Eventually, a collective bargaining was reached – after striking for elven weeks. Workers had won.

The finally snapshot comes from the East-German city of Leipzig. At global logistics giant DHL, workers were banned from the workplace simply for opposing the shipment of arms.

Trade unionists were targeted by management for speaking at a rally against arms exports. A very valid question is still: Haven’t German arms caused enough misery in the last 100 years?

Christopher, a DHL worker, expressed concern about arms shipments from Leipzig/Halle Airport to war zones.

He took part in a peaceful protest hike – 15 kilometers from Leipzig’s main station to the airport – in August 2025. About 700 people marched that day. Christopher, fresh from a night shift, addressed them.

“We don’t want our work to serve war,” he said. He opposes militarization and specifically arms shipments to Israel. Because of this, DHL sanctioned him. So much for democracy and “social partnership.”

Christopher is a union official with Ver.di. He hopes the protest sparks more worker resistance to militarization. “Workers don’t shoot workers,” he said. Rosa Luxemburg couldn’t have put it better.

“No transport for genocide,” he added – a message applauded by the crowd and shared widely on social media.

Three snapshots. One message: German labor relations aren’t dead. Workers are fighting – in courts, in meat factories, in airports. These workers will not surrender. Whatever dirty tactics management throws at them – they stand firm.

Thomas Klikauer has over 800 publications (including 12 books) and writes regularly for BraveNewEurope (Western Europe), the Barricades (Eastern Europe), Buzzflash (USA), Counterpunch (USA), Countercurrents (India), Tikkun (USA), and ZNet (USA). One of his books is on Managerialism (2013).

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