Charité nurses vote for indefinite strike while talks continue

Nurses organised in the Verdi union at Berlin's Charité university hospital are ready for an indefinite strike. In a ballot among its members, 98 percent of those who took part voted in favour, the union said on Friday. Verdi does not disclose exact membership figures at individual hospitals, but the share of nurses in the union on many wards is thought to be around 50 percent.

The dispute concerns a new version of the Entlastungstarifvertrag, which compensates nurses with time off, money or benefits in kind when staffing falls below defined levels. Verdi won the agreement in 2021, and it became a model for other hospitals. The Charité board has terminated it effective at the end of the year, citing high deficits that are expected to grow under the federal hospital reform.

Meetings with hospital management are planned for next week. If Verdi declares the talks failed, it could call an indefinite strike. Depending on participation, many treatments would then have to be postponed, which would cost the hospital revenue. In recent weeks the union has held smaller warning strikes lasting a day or a shift.

Many in Verdi are also hoping a possible red-green-red coalition in Berlin will help, as the Left, Greens and SPD backed the agreement during exploratory talks. Berlin is heavily indebted, however, and the Charité's state science funding was recently cut. On Thursday, the hospital and the doctors' union Marburger Bund agreed on pay rises and new shift allowances, averting a doctors' strike.