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FLIGHTS

Hundreds of flights cancelled as strike starts at Berlin airports

Thousands of Berliners are facing travel misery after ground crews at both the German capital's airports started striking early on Friday morning, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations.

Hundreds of flights cancelled as strike starts at Berlin airports
Photo: DPA

A spokesperson for the local Airport Association confirmed that almost every single flight out of and into both Berlin airports had been affected by the strike.

At Tegel airport in the north of the city, 455 flights were called off, while at Schönefeld airport 204 flights were cancelled.

The strike started at 4am on Friday morning and is set to last until 5am on Saturday, with the airports warning passengers to expect delays after the strikes end too.

Customers with the airlines Lufthansa, Eurowings and Air Berlin flying inside Germany could have their tickets converted into train tickets with Deutsche Bahn (German Rail).

Those flying with budget airlines Transavia were not so lucky. The KLM subsidiary only offered its customers the opportunity to book a flight at a later date or receive the cost of their ticket back.

SEE ALSO: What you need to know about the strikes crippling Berlin airports

Many travellers flying abroad were left scrambling to make contingency plans, with buses leaving from Tegel on Friday morning to Hanover Airport, where several flights had been rescheduled, Tagesspiegel reports.

The strike also comes on the weekend when Berlin hosts the International Tourism Fair, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors from across Europe.

The call to strike was made by union Verdi, which has demanded a pay raise of one euro per hour for ground staff with work contract terms of at least one year. Currently ground crew members earn on average €11 per hour.

The union has been negotiating with a group representing companies that provide ground transport services to airports. The employers' group on Tuesday offered a pay raise of 8 percent over the course of three years, but the union rejected this proposal.

“Unfortunately a strike is inevitable because the employers have still not delivered a suitable offer, and it seems that it's not currently possible to negotiate an agreement,” said Verdi negotiator Enrico Rümker.

The employers' group called the strikes “irresponsible”, saying the action pushes finding a solution further into the distance.

“We have done everything within our power to avoid a strike,” said a spokesperson for the employers' group.

Verdi already held strikes last month at Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart airports amid the ongoing labour negotiation dispute. 

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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