Air traffic disrupted at 8 German airports amid staff strike

Today, Friday, air traffic was interrupted at 8 airports in Germany, primarily in Frankfurt and Munich, due to an employee strike in the context of tense wage negotiations.

At Frankfurt Airport, which is Germany’s largest, “the atmosphere is very calm, there are almost no passengers in the halls”, with only about 10 flights expected to arrive or depart on Friday, compared to thousands on normal days. days, said the representative of the company that manages the airport “Fraport”, Dieter Holek.

Flights at Munich Airport will be halted until 1am on Saturday, meaning more than 700 takeoffs and landings will be affected, according to the operator’s spokeswoman Corinna Born.

Medical, technical and emergency flights for the Munich Safety Conference starting on Friday will not be affected.

The strike was staged to cause “serious consequences, especially on domestic flights, ranging from delays to cancellations and even partial shutdowns,” according to a statement released on Wednesday by German service workers’ union Verdi.

“Together, workers are putting pressure on employers because negotiations have so far failed,” said union vice president Christine Bailey.

The Verdi union is currently in further negotiations for public sector workers, airport workers and security personnel to demand higher wages to offset the decline in purchasing power due to high inflation.

The German airport strike affects the airports of Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich, Stuttgart and Leipzig.

“Inflation, high energy and food prices are forcing many workers to live in conditions of instability,” Bailey said.

The union organized a similar strike at the Berlin airport last month, which resulted in the cancellation or delay of about 300 flights.

Record inflation in recent months in Germany, which stood at 10.4% in October, put pressure on annual wage negotiations in various sectors, causing tensions that sometimes led to work stoppages.

Postal workers in Germany have gone on strike several times since the beginning of the year in response to a petition from the Verdi union calling for a 15% wage increase.

Source: AFP.