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SECURITY

Hundreds of flights axed as fresh strike hits German airports

Hundreds of flights were being cancelled at eight German airports Tuesday, including at the nation's busiest travel hub Frankfurt, as security staff walk off the job in a deepening row over pay.

Published: 15 January 2019 08:06 CET
Updated: 15 January 2019 15:32 CET
Hundreds of flights axed as fresh strike hits German airports
Flights cancelled in Hamburg airport on Tuesday. Photo: DPA
Germany's powerful Verdi union said the strike would last from 02:00 am until 8:00 pm at the airports of Frankfurt, Munich, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden and Erfurt.
 
 
At least 220,000 travellers will be hit by cancellations and delays, the ADV airport association said, in a calculation that includes knock-on effects in other airports.
 
Frankfurt airport operator Fraport, which has now axed 617 out of 1,200 scheduled flights, has urged passengers not to come to Europe's fourth-busiest airport during the strike hours.
 
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 Düsseldorf last Thursday.
 
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 Düsseldorf last Thursday.
 
Germany's flagship carrier Lufthansa accused Verdi of ramping up tensions “to an unacceptable extent”.
 
The ADV airport 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.
 
Employees in Frankfurt airport on Tuesday. Photo; DPA
 
'No response'
 
Verdi, which represents some 23,000 aviation security workers, said it was forced to ramp 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 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 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 bumps of up to 6.4 percent.
 
The next round of talks is slated for January 23rd.
 
Lufthansa, among the airlines worst-hit by the strikes, said Verdi “has no interest in making its contribution to improving Germany as an aviation location”.
 
“We already have the lowest quality security checks at the highest costs, compared to Europe and other countries around the world,” said Lufthansa board member Detlef Kayser.
 
The dispute is the latest upheaval for air travellers in Germany, after a series of strikes by Ryanair cabin and cockpit crew in the second of half of 2018, including two pan-European walkouts, caused huge disruptions.

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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.

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