Shey in one fell swoop – at the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen, the Verdi trade union largely brought air traffic to a standstill by calling for strikes on Friday. Employees of the airport companies, private apron service providers and security services at the control points went on strike. The airport association ADV estimated that 2,340 flights for around 295,000 passengers were canceled over the entire day.
With the walkout, Verdi bundled three different collective bargaining conflicts, that for employees in the federal and municipal public services, that for ground handling services at airports and that for aviation security services. The third is currently – due to a collective wage agreement that will run until the end of the year – only deals with regulations for surcharges.
Verdi threatens strikes in “another dimension”
In the run-up to the day of the strike, deputy Verdi chairwoman Christine Behle argued that the joint walkout relieved airports and passengers. For the airports, this means “that they only have to prepare for this one day and are not struck on different days”.
The focus was on the conflict in the public service. Because of this, subways and trams remained in the depots in Frankfurt, while waste disposal companies and day-care centers were affected elsewhere. Verdi is demanding wage increases of 10.5 percent – but at least 500 euros a month. With the walkout on Friday, the union wanted to increase the pressure on employers before the next round of negotiations on Wednesday next week.
Verdi chairman Frank Werneke warned that strike measures would have far more consequences if an agreement was not reached soon. “At the moment we are still talking about individual warning strikes, limited in time and region. If necessary, we will expand this significantly in the coming weeks,” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper. “The next strikes have a different dimension.”
With regard to the airports, Verdi points out that there are still staff shortages due to low pay, and that there is a risk of a “chaos summer” again, like in 2022. Therefore, lower income groups should be particularly strengthened. At Berlin Airport, Verdi had agreed with ground service providers on increases in two stages of 448 to 490 euros per month.
There was an emptiness at the airports on Friday. Almost all the passengers hadn’t even gotten there. Deutsche Lufthansa completely stopped its passenger operations in Frankfurt and Munich. “More than 1,300 flight cancellations for the airlines in the Lufthansa Group alone show once again how vulnerable and susceptible the air traffic system is to strike activities,” said HR Director Michael Niggemann.
Domestic travelers should switch to Deutsche Bahn, which reported a slightly increased number of passengers. The Frankfurt airport operator Fraport announced that there should only be twelve flight movements there instead of the regular 1000, primarily aid flights for earthquake victims in Turkey.
The holiday flight providers Condor and TUI Fly found a way to circumvent the strike for some of their customers. They relocated take-offs to airports that were not under strike. Condor had the majority of the long-haul flights planned from Frankfurt start in Düsseldorf. The TUI company, which wanted to fly at least half of its plan, switched to regional airports such as Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden or Memmingen. A holiday flight to Fuerteventura even started in Braunschweig, where traffic with larger aircraft is not usual. Travelers were taken to the departure point by bus.
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