07-03-2025
German nurseries and care facilities go on strike ahead of Women's Day
Dozens of institutions, including daycare centres (Kitas), youth and social welfare offices as well as clinics, care and social facilities, went on strike on Friday.
The Education and Science Union (GEW) has also called on employees in the social and educational services to strike under the slogan 'Early Education Strike Day'.
The nationwide strike in hospitals and clinics began on Thursday.
This latest phase of action is timed to take place on Equal Pay Day, ahead of International Women's Day on March 8th, and will highlight the particular struggles faced by women in the care and service professions.
'It's a clear signal for pay justice and better conditions in social professions, which are often undervalued,' said Christine Behle, Verdi's deputy chairwoman, ahead of the strikes.
Women in Germany not only face a 16 percent pay gap compared to their male counterparts, but often have to juggle multiple care roles in their personal and professional life, Behle explained.
The Verdi deputy chairwoman also pointed out that public-sector jobs in healthcare and childcare were particularly hard hit by understaffing issues.
"In the social and care professions in particular, we need significantly more employees and opportunities for flexible working hours to ensure a good work-life balance," she said.
'Systemic failure'
On Thursday, Verdi and the leftwing Rosa Luxemburg Foundation presented a joint analysis highlighting the scale of the staffing crisis in nursery schools across Germany.
The report, titled "Crisis in Daycare – Exposing Systemic Failure", reveals that a majority of surveyed daycare staff reported going to work while sick and completing tasks "rushed and under time pressure."
"The pressure is mounting, and without support, it's only a matter of time before the system collapses completely," one Kita worker wrote in an anonymous account.
Children's shoes at a Kita. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder
In their analysis, the study's authors describe "untenable conditions" in Germany's nursery schools due to a lack of resources. They conclude that acute staff shortages lead to "reduced childcare hours, the closure of entire daycare groups, institutional child endangerment, and long-term illnesses."
Presenting the report in Berlin, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation deputy chairman Jan Korte called on the government to set aside a dedicated fund for nursery schools.
Currently, around 380,000 Kita places are missing across the country, he said, and funding for Kitas is "laughable".
Ongoing public sector strikes
This latest round of strike action is part of fierce negotiations over pay and conditions for public sector workers in Germany.
From March 14th to 16th, Verdi is set to sit down for the next round of talks with government employers and is hoping to increase the pressure with a series of warning strikes.
The union is demanding a pay increase of eight percent or at least €350 more per month for some 2.5 million public sector workers, as well as higher bonuses for working at stressful and unsociable times.
The services union also wants training allowances and trainee wages to be increased by €200 per month and is demanding three additional days off work per year.
So far, the employers' side has rejected these proposals, leading to a wave of public-sector strikes that have affected nursery schools, waste disposal, transport, hospitals and care facilities in Germany. Verdi has accused the federal and local governments of a "blockade" and "provocation".
Alongside the strikes, demonstrations are also planned in many federal states - including Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse - on Friday.
