Getty imagesHundreds of flights have been canceled across Germany while airport workers stage a national strike on salary, posing a major disruption for air travelers.
Industrial action, Sunday by the Verdi union, started unexpectedly on Sunday at Hamburg airport, before spreading to a national strike.
The passengers of Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and other major centers were invited not to go to airports, with seriously disturbed operations. Frankfurt, Germany’s busiest airport, said passengers could not get on the flights and that the transfer would be “almost” affected “.
Verdi, which represents the public sector and transport workers, is being disputed on wages and working conditions.
The German media report that thousands of flights could be canceled throughout the day, disturbing trips of more than 500,000 passengers.
The Lufthansa group, whose main center is in Frankfurt, confirmed “the delays and extended cancellations” in all its airlines.
Meanwhile, Munich Airport warned against a “considerably reduced flight calendar”. This includes Eurowings flights, Austrian airlines and Swiss Air.
Katja Bromm, spokesperson for Hamburg airport, where the 143 departures scheduled for Monday have already been canceled, said Verdi “dishonorable” to call a strike without notice at the start of the holiday season.
She said that Sunday debraying was “excessive and unfair for tens of thousands of travelers who have nothing to do with disputes”.
A Verdi spokesperson admitted that the strike would affect a lot, but said that travel disruption was necessary to extract a better salary offer.
Lars Stubbe, the representative of the Hamburg union, told the BBC: “Workers are aware that the disturbances occur, and they are uncomfortable with this, but in any case, it is the employer who caused these strikes because they did not put a negotiable offer on the table.”
EPAMany of 1770 planned flights from Francfurt airport have already been canceled, while the majority of the 820 Munich flights should be canceled.
Hundreds of other cancellations are anticipated through Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Cologne and Berlin.
Many passengers had already checked their luggage and had problems with the return, according to the public broadcaster NDR. He also reported that the strike brought air traffic to Hanover airport at a stop.
VERDI requests include a salary increase of 8%, or at least € 350 more per month, for all workers – and three additional days of vacation, plus an additional day for union members.
Stubbe said that if the airport wage range was greater than the minimum wage, ranging from 13 to 25 € (£ 11 to 21) per hour, workers in different roles – in particular security personnel – have received fewer annual holidays than others.
“There have been two series of negotiations in which employers have not yet offered a penny,” he added.
“It is quite usual that we did not get any offer in the first round, but now even in the second round, employers have essentially said:” No, we are not going to give you an offer because we have no money “.”
The so-called “warning strike”, a tactic established in German salary negotiations, concerns two separate salary disputes: a relating to airport security workers and a broader disagreement on the salary of employees of the federal and municipal government.
Verdi has also called for strikes in waste collection in several German cities, notably Berlin, Essen and Kiel, where bins have become without imprint since last week.
Paid conferences for government employees are expected to restart Friday in Potsdam on Friday, while the next series of discussions for airport security staff should start on March 26.
