How often did workers in Germany strike in 2025?

In 2025, unionised employees in Germany went on strike less than in the previous year, but more than before the coronavirus pandemic. What were they demanding?

Fewer strikes, but still more than pre-COVID

According to figures from the Economic and Social Science Institute (WSI) at the Hans Böckler Foundation, around 552.000 employees in Germany took part in 261 strikes over the course of 2025, disrupting a total of 645.000 working days.

The figures show a significant drop in the number of strikes compared to 2024, but still more than in the years before the coronavirus pandemic. The number of strikes hit record levels in 2024, when an estimated 912.000 employees took part in industrial action, disrupting a total of 946.000 working days.

The reduced number of strikes in 2025 has been attributed to the absence of new collective bargaining agreements negotiated for employees in the metal and electronics industries. These industries employ around 3,7 million people, are heavily unionised and negotiated new agreements in 2024.

In Germany, over the long term, the number of disputes involving strikes remains relatively high, according to WSI researchers Thilo Janssen and Heiner Dribbusch. This is because the recent decline in purchasing power experienced by many employees has yet to be offset.

Why were workers striking in 2025?

Reasons for employees striking were varied, but there were patterns. In around half of the strikes in 2025, unions were demanding higher wages for employees. In a further 15 percent of cases, they were demanding a combination of higher wages and improved rules around working hours.

In 27 percent of strikes, employees were demanding that collective bargaining agreements continue to determine their pay and working conditions. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), 49 percent of employees in Germany were covered by a collective bargaining agreement in 2025.

Employees whose pay and working conditions are determined by collective bargaining agreements usually have more favourable conditions than those who negotiate their own terms. In 2022, the EU set a goal for 80 percent of workers bloc-wide to be covered by an agreement.

By international comparison, employees in Germany take part in industrial action less regularly. In 2025, Finland, France, Canada and Belgium were the countries where industrial action was most common, with an average of 92 to 100 disrupted working days.

Germany sits somewhere in the middle, alongside the UK, the USA and Norway, which saw an average of between 23 and 32 disrupted working days.