Berlin: A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country’s other main destinations, caused the cancelation of most flights Monday.

The 24-hour walkout, which started at midnight, involved public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground and security staff.

At Frankfurt Airport, 1,054 of the day’s 1,116 scheduled takeoffs and landings had been cancelled, German news agency dpa reported, citing airport traffic management.

All of Berlin Airport’s regular departures and arrivals were cancelled, while Hamburg Airport said no departures would be possible. Cologne/Bonn Airport said there was no regular passenger service, and Munich Airport advised travellers to expect a “greatly reduced flight schedule.”

The ver.di service workers union’s strike also targeted the Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart and Munich airports. At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security workers were called out.

The union announced the strike Friday. But at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout Sunday to the strike on Monday, arguing that it must ensure the measure was effective.

The so-called “warning strike,” a common tactic in German wage negotiations, relates to two separate pay disputes: negotiations on a new pay and conditions contract for airport security workers and a wider dispute over pay for employees of federal and municipal governments.

The latter already has led to walkouts at Cologne/Bonn, Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Munich airports. Pay talks in that dispute are due to resume Friday, while the next round of talks for airport security workers is expected to start March 26.

AP

Frankfurt Am Main: Hundreds of flights were cancelled at eight German airports Tuesday, including at the nation’s busiest travel hub Frankfurt, as security staff walked off the job in a deepening row over pay.
Germany’s powerful Verdi union said the strike would last from 02:00 am until 8:00 pm at Frankfurt airport, with walkouts in Munich, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden and Erfurt following roughly the same schedule.
At least 2,20,000 travellers would be hit by cancellations and delays, the ADV airport association said, in a calculation that includes knock-on effects at other airports.
Frankfurt airport operator Fraport, which axed 617 out of around 1,200 scheduled flights, urged passengers not to come to Europe’s fourth-busiest airport during the strike.
“Security doesn’t come free,” read a banner held aloft by Verdi members demonstrating at the airport, clad in yellow high-visibility jackets.
German passenger Brigitte Inhof told AFP that she was going to have to travel by bus to a different airport to catch a flight to the Turkish resort of Antalya.
“I should have flown direct from Frankfurt to Antalya, now I have to make my way to Stuttgart,” she said.
At Munich airport, Germany’s second largest, a spokeswoman said around 100, mainly domestic, flights were cancelled.
The coordinated industrial action marks a major escalation in Verdi’s dispute with employers, following walkouts at Berlin’s airports last Monday and in Stuttgart, Cologne/Bonn and Duesseldorf last Thursday.
Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa accused Verdi of ramping up tensions “to an unacceptable extent” while the ADV association blasted the wave of strikes as “irresponsible”.
“Verdi is unjustifiably carrying out these strikes on the backs of travellers, airlines and airports,” ADV head Ralph Beisel said in a statement.
Verdi, which represents some 23,000 aviation security workers, said it was forced to step up pressure because talks with the BDLS employers’ association were deadlocked.
“Employers did not respond to last week’s warning strikes at all, they haven’t come up with an improved offer,” Verdi board member Ute Kittel told public broadcaster ZDF.
The union wants to see wages raised to 20 euros ($23) per hour for workers carrying out passenger, freight, personnel and goods checks at all German airports.
Rates currently vary nationwide, with staff in some airports in eastern Germany earning around 14 euros hourly, compared with just over 17 euros for their peers in the capital and western parts of the country.
“Security is not worth less in the east, and the employees are not worth less,” said Kittel.
The BDLS has baulked at the proposed wage hike, instead offering pay increases of up to 6.4 per cent.