Security personnel began a one-day strike at 11 major German airports on Thursday, leading to the expected cancellation or delay of 1,000 flights and affecting more than 200,000 passengers, Deutsche Welle reported.
The strike started on Wednesday evening at the Cologne/Bonn airport in western Germany when passenger control staff failed to turn up for their night shift. Özay Tarim, a spokesperson for the trade union Verdi, claimed that the strike participation rate at that airport was 100 per cent.
It was a successful start to the strike.
Security staff suspended operations in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hannover, Stuttgart, Erfurt and Dresden after Verdi called for industrial action.
Düsseldorf Airport has cancelled only a third of its flights. Tarim reported that the security company offered workers a “strike-breaking bonus” of 200 euros (216 US dollars) for coming to work. Meanwhile, airports such as Munich and Nuremberg were not affected by the strikes, as their security staff are considered public sector employees and have different contracts.
Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt is also expected to experience widespread disruption on Thursday. The airport operator Fraport reported:
The strike will cause major disruptions and flight cancellations throughout the day. In particular, security checkpoints outside the transit area will remain closed.
Lufthansa, Germany’s leading airline, stated that passengers could rebook their tickets until February 8. It also offered domestic passengers train tickets for Thursday at no extra cost.
Verdi announced a strike after unsuccessful negotiations with the Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS). The main demand was a €2.80 increase in hourly wages. A BDLS spokesperson claimed that they had made an offer of a 4 per cent pay rise this year and then 3 per cent the following year, noting that the union’s demand could not be met.
Thursday’s strike came after German train drivers’ union GDL had called for the country’s longest-ever strike by railway workers last week over a dispute with national rail operator Deutsch Bahn. Verdi also urged local public transport workers in most parts of Germany to go on strike on Friday.
