Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

AIRPORT

What you need to know about the strikes crippling Berlin airports

Industrial action has grounded almost every single flight into and out of Berlin on Friday, the latest in an ongoing dispute. Here's what you need to know if you have been affected or if you're flying soon.

Published: 10 March 2017 11:56 CET
What you need to know about the strikes crippling Berlin airports
Photo: DPA

What is the strike about?

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.

Is my flight affected?

Practically all flights into and out of Berlin’s airports on Friday have been cancelled. 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.

You can check the latest on your flight here.

Is this a one-off?

Unfortunately not.

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

More than 100 flights were cancelled at the beginning of February during strikes, and dozens more were cancelled during another round of strikes that month.

According to Berlin daily Tagesspiegel, things are about to get a lot worse. Verdi will avoid rolling strikes so as not to risk the courts stepping in to block the action. Instead they plan to call single-day strikes repeatedly over the next few weeks, only announcing them days beforehand.

Tagesspiegel expects the next strikes to be called early next week.

Am I going to lose money?

You could well do.

If you are flying with Lufthansa, Eurowings or Air Berlin, you are in luck. These airlines have a deal with Deutsche Bahn (DB) allowing you to convert your plane ticket into a train ticket for the same day. DB have said they may put on extra services to cope with the burden on their already full Friday evening services.

But many of the budget airlines – including Ryanair and Transavia – offer only a refund or the chance to re-book at a different time, meaning that if you need to get somewhere on Friday, you’ll end up forking out a lot of money for an alternative means of travel.

What do airlines have to cover?

Unfortunately for you, the airlines aren't legally obliged to cover the costs of your replacement ticket.

Compensation is complicated by the fact that the airlines aren't involved in the industrial dispute, which is between ground staff and the private companies which run operations in the airport.

Boris Narewski, a specialist in travel law, explained to The Local that air companies do have an obligation to get you to your destination, but that they aren't obliged to do it on the same day.

“The fact is, it's not possible for them to take you to your destination when both airports in the city have been completely closed down by strikes,” he explained.

The upshot of this appears to be that getting a flight on a different day is about the best you can hope for.

Eva Klaar from the Consumer Rights Centre explained, though, that airlines do have some obligations.

“If they are flying you out of Germany instead via Hanover, Leipzig or a different German airport, they have a responsibility to pay your travel costs to get to these airports,” Klaar explained.

She added that, in case people end up being stuck in Berlin for another day, the airlines have to carry the costs of a hotel, food and travel between the hotel and airport.

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.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
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.

SHOW COMMENTS