“If the employers continue to stonewall, the warning strikes will inevitably have to be extended,” Ulrich Silberbach, head of Germany’s Civil Service Association (dbb), told German paper Bild am Sonntag.

Warning strikes on Friday at seven airports throughout Germany meant that around 300,000 passengers were unable to take their flights.

READ ALSO: More than 2,000 flights cancelled in Germany as airport workers strike

Silberbach emphasised the tense financial situation of the municipalities saying that the politicians in the federal government, and above all in the federal states, were to blame, not the employees of the public services.

The president of the Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations (VKA), Karin Welge, told the newspaper that she had the “wholehearted desire” to come to a conclusion in three rounds of negotiations, as planned.

She again criticised the demands of the dbb and Verdi unions, calling them unworkable: “If these requirements were met, this would exceed the capacity of the municipalities,” she said.

Verdi and dbb are calling for an increase in income of 10.5 percent, with a rise of at least €500 euros.

However, this has been rejected by municipal employers who have said it is not feasible economically.

Verdi is currently leading negotiations for Germany’s approximately 2.5 million employees in federal and local public service, demanding better pay at a time when workers are seeing their incomes eroded by the higher cost of living.

The new collective agreement for employees will initially have a term of 12 months.

The second round of negotiations in the wage conflict is planned for February 22nd and 23rd in Potsdam.

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