Warning strikes paralyzed air traffic at many German airports

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According to spokespersons for the Verdi union, many workers in Hamburg, Hannover, Bremen and Berlin stopped working until late on Sunday evening. Then on Monday, air traffic in the affected areas came to an almost complete halt.

The labor dispute is likely to affect other places as well. Airports advised passengers to consult their companies.

Nearly 200 departures were canceled at the BER near Berlin alone, according to airport information. About 27,000 passengers were affected there. About a third of the nearly 200 planned landings failed. The terminals remained largely empty. A few passengers stood stunned in front of the display boards or settled into the many empty rows for long waits.

There were also dozens of failures in Hannover and Bremen. There were more than 120 people in Hamburg. Bundesliga basketball team Veolia Towers was also among those affected. The team needed to find a different route for a match in Israel.

Lufthansa has announced that it wants to at least operate its flights to Berlin and Hamburg as planned. But business travelers who wanted to leave Berlin or Hamburg had to look for an alternative.

Behind the warning strikes are collective bargaining for public sector workers at the federal and local levels. There are also local negotiations for ground handling workers and nationwide collective bargaining for aviation security workers.

The union charges 10.5 percent more for the nearly 2.5 million employees in the federal and local civil services nationwide, but at least 500 euros more per month. Employers offer one-time payments of five percent more and 2500 euros in two steps. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for the end of March.

For example, in the case of aviation security workers at the BER, there is a surcharge for night, weekend and holiday shifts. Negotiations with the Federal Association of Aviation Safety Companies (BDLS) have been going on for years. The association criticized the warning strikes as being disproportionate. “We don’t understand the strike at all and it also hurts the progress of negotiations,” said Rainer Friebertshäuser, chair of the BDLS collective bargaining committee.

Airport association ADV had already criticized the weekend business dispute. “The announcement came back shortly. Affected passengers have almost no chance to seek alternative travel options.”

Warning strikes could be the start of more job cuts in other areas of transport. For example, EVG is negotiating new wage agreements with the rail union, Deutsche Bahn and 50 other companies. He will have met at least once with each of these companies by March 23.

An EVG spokesperson said over the weekend that a balance will be struck and further action will be taken later. “Bild am Sonntag” reported that EVG and Verdi are planning a joint warning strike on March 27 that will paralyze the transport sector.

(SDA)

Source :Blick