Chamber President gives little hope for faster appointments

The President of the Hamburg Chamber of Crafts, Hjalmar Stemmann, has appealed to politicians in the Hanseatic city to do more for the medium-sized craft businesses in the city. Many companies, especially with energy-intensive technology, such as bakeries, butchers, metalworkers or laundries, are "in front of a real emergency," said Stemmann in his annual speech to 170 guests from politics and business in the Chamber of Commerce. Because the high energy costs would already put a heavy burden on many companies, the energy price brakes - albeit retrospectively - would only take effect in March.

Traditionally, the craft and chamber of commerce representatives invite the Senate and the most important decision-makers in the city to the end of the year to draw attention to their respective situation, to criticize the past year and to make demands for the coming year.

The Chamber of Crafts is the first to do this. However, President Stemmann was reluctant to criticize the Senate. Although he referred to the ongoing anger surrounding the expansion of resident parking in the Hanseatic city, he also made it clear that in times of crisis it was more important to work together on solutions than against each other. "There are no easy answers to difficult questions," emphasized Stemmann.

Nevertheless, he demanded that the Senate make more concrete commitments for the craft companies. “Craft structures are an important part of Hamburg's great economic diversity. Skilled trades balance out cluster risks for the location crisis after crisis and create a healthy basis,” says Stemmann.

Hamburg has always been a commercial city, and the Hanseatic city is one of the largest industrial locations in Germany. The focus of economic policy is therefore often on large companies, the port and the trade relations of the city.

On behalf of the member companies, he called for “everything to be done that stabilizes small and medium-sized companies and strengthens medium-sized economic structures”. He warned of a "Moorburg effect" in the Hamburg trade. Because, according to the President, this also applies to Hamburg's trades, based on the dismantling of the modern and efficient Moorburg coal-fired power plant: "Once shut down and scrapped - end of site. Small and medium-sized businesses that are lost in the crisis are irretrievably lost. Reopening after three months of closure will not work.”

Therefore, the craft need short-term support in the energy crisis. In the long term, he called for an education and qualification policy that ensures that there is a sufficient supply of skilled workers. Furthermore, there must be understandable and simple rules, "instead of having to blaze a trail in the thicket of diverse and not always comprehensible legal and official requirements". And last but not least, good regional site conditions are needed “in terms of space, traffic situation, parking space and local economic development.”

However, Stemmann's speech also dealt with external influences that are currently making it difficult for craft businesses to do their work for customers in the way they have been used to in recent years. 80 percent of the companies suffered from disrupted global supply chains.

Among other things, it is also due to the fact that there are currently long waiting times for appointments with craftsmen. Stemmann gives little hope for faster appointments with craft businesses in the coming year. "At the moment we are still in a tense situation," said the 59-year-old in an interview with the "Hamburger Abendblatt". Waiting times of nine weeks are common in many trades.

“One of the longest waiting times is when heat pumps are installed. But not because of the craftsmen, but because of the delivery times of the devices, which can sometimes take up to nine months.” Stemmann appealed to the craftsmen to keep appointments and to inform customers quickly in the event of delays: “Service technicians have a telephone in the car and can inform the households promptly.”