Hello, I'm Frauke, I'm a nurse
and I work in Leipzig on the haematology ward.
Strike at the university hospital in Leipzig 2023
I remember that in 2023
a colleague approached me if I want to act as a 'wage ambassador'
of our ward.
And at first I thought, no, I'm not really in the mood for it.
And I'm sure there will be more meetings,
that are a bit boring, a bit dull maybe.
I had been a union member for a while,
but I never really got involved or took much interest.
And then
I was on a short strike once and it really got to me,
because there were so many committed colleagues
and this fire spread to me,
and it gave me a great deal of strength,
to get to know these people from the other wards,
who also have their ideals
in mind
and ... that it doesn't break us...
that this daily dulling grind
has not got this person down and will not get me down either.
That's how my union work started
and then for real also with these strikes.
To realise that when we get actively involved,
then we can also make a difference.
Our demands were 10.5% more pay
or at least €550.
We were able to enforce these demands relatively well.
So we went out with a pay increase,
which was adjusted, so that from November 2024,
our base rate was increased by €200
and from February 2025 we are paid 5.5% more.
We have also achieved compensation for inflation
of €3,000 for full-time work,
which was paid out in tranches.
And then a reduction in working hours.
We were able to achieve three additional days off
for the year 2024,
which were at our free disposal, we were allowed to plan them independently.
For 2025, we have now a 39.5-hour week
plus two further additional days off and a 38.5-hour week starting in 2026.
So we have come a long way with our demands.
How was the strike organized?
All the hospital staff were very well involved.
There was the election of so-called collective bargaining ambassadors.
These were ward-internal representatives,
who collected information from the wards themselves,
from the colleagues themselves, and who fed those back into the strike organisation.
In 2023, the strike participation was higher than ever before.
By way of comparison, at the last round of collective bargaining in 2021,
we had 150 strikers, and now,
at the collective bargaining round of the federal states in 2023,
we had 600.
That was also the busiest strike day.
What remained from the strike?
What remains is that we were able to have this strike experience
and that we carry a completely new form of solidarity and a network
amongst us.
On the one hand, friendships have developed.
But also this experience, okay, how can this actually work?
In March, we have founded a group at the university hospital
to consolidate and expand union work.
Because we also realised that during the strike
time was incredibly short, because a lot of
1:1 conversations were held,
which just took time and sometimes lasted an hour.
And so we are now trying little by little to open up the university hospital
to have more and more conversations,
to pass on all these experiences and findings
and to build this up over a longer period of time,
I think that's very realistic and very necessary.
Fighting for relief
We have now mainly fought for more pay,
because it could be negotiated within this collective agreement.
But what we also noted in the discussions
with many colleagues was actually
that everywhere simply the work burden or the work load
plays a much bigger role.
And many have said, money is all well and good, but I want more time.
There are many colleagues here who accrued a lot of overtime.
And there is always the question of when it should be taken off in lieu,
because the system is designed in such a way that various levels
are under pressure.
The team leaders are under pressure.
They would also like to say: Stay at home tomorrow,
but then there's simply no one there.
And yes, the problem is simply
that this basic problem
has to be negotiated in a much larger system
And that is simply what is felt every day,
because understaffing is simply the norm in many areas.
It means that people have a heavy workload
are very stressed,
the quality of care suffers greatly because things are neglected.
On the one hand, things like conversations.
That sounds so basic, but it is so important,
because we also always take care of people who are dying.
And if I don't have time, then I don't have time
to care for dying people or to talk with them about
how they would like to die. That's just not possible.
And that's a big burden.
Also mistakes happen.
The people who made them
have to deal with them.
Who made them, understandably perhaps, under time pressure.
And yet that burden, that guilt,
stays on the shoulders of the employees.
We could go on strike for relief under a collective agreement.
But that would be a new collective agreement.
And for that we first need a union strength,
because the employer will not want that.
For example, there was
such a movement in Berlin or in North Rhine-Westphalia.
They did it, they were able to negotiate different
collective agreements for relief
And that is definitely a big concern for employees
and is now also on the list of topics
that we are dealing with.
That's why soon there will be for example
a discussion evening of the hospital workers' group,
during which we exchange ideas
with other colleagues, i.e. from Berlin and Hannover,
to learn more and get more input for now.
What we can do is, on the one hand, good organising work,
for example, this workers' group, first of all, keep in touch
with colleagues, and to pass on these experiences.
For example, when we fought for our demands in 2023
and stood up for ourselves,
we were successful like never before.
So we have really converted our strength into a concrete result.
And I think that is the key.
To convert all this frustration and also despair
among individual nursing staff, or in the other areas,
who are also understaffed,
into a force for action and into self-activity.
And in this realisation of: Okay, this probably won't change now
unless we show solidarity and raise our voices together.