Thousands of German doctors strike for better wages, conditions
Thousands of doctors at university hospitals in Germany put down their stethoscopes and held rallies to demand higher incomes and better working conditions.
Around 7,000 doctors from 23 university hospitals took part in the rallies on Monday, according to the Marburger Bund doctors' union.
A fourth round of negotiations between the doctors' union and the employers of Germany's federal states had recently failed. However, Monika Heinold, the chief negotiator for the employers, known by the German acronym TdL, was optimistic about further negotiations.
The doctors are demanding a 12.5% pay rise as well as higher bonuses for regular work at night, on weekends and public holidays.
In the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, around 2,500 hospital doctors went on strike all day at all six university hospitals, according to a union spokesman. One sign at the rally read: "Uni clinic: come in and burn out."
Around 2,000 strikers from the Bavarian university hospitals gathered in Munich. In Stuttgart, protesting doctors placed a symbolic hospital bed in front of the Finance Ministry - the doctors demanded a "financial infusion" for the hospitals.
The finance minister of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Monika Heinold, said she is counting on "finding a solution acceptable to both sides in the next round of negotiations at the end of March."
The negotiations concern the salaries of more than 20,000 doctors in 23 university hospitals. Other collective agreements apply to doctors in Berlin, Hamburg and Hesse.
The hospital strikes come as Germany faces a wave of strikes in the transport sector. On Tuesday, German train drivers and staff at the country's national carrier Lufthansa plan to put down their work again as part of ongoing wage disputes.
