News / Germany

German airports staff begin strike for higher wages

Wednesday, 27 April 2016 10:24 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 27 April 2016 10:21 AM ]

A man looks at a flight information board with cancelled flights in Frankfurt airport, Germany, April 27, 2016. ©Reuters

Hundreds of public sector workers at a number of airports in Germany have begun strikes to push for higher wages.

Ground services, security checks, firefighting and check-in staff went on strike in Munich airport on Wednesday. Their strike will continue until midnight. The airport said some 700 of its 1,100 flights had been canceled.

Staff in Frankfurt airport, which is the largest airport in Germany, will end their strike at 1300 GMT.

Similar strikes will cause disruption at Dusseldorf, Cologne-Bonn, Dortmund and Hanover airports.

German airline Lufthansa said it was forced to cancel around 900 flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich airports, which is equivalent to 60 percent of its scheduled services for Wednesday.

Operations at the airports are expected to be severely impeded due to the strikes and airport operator Fraport said the services would return to normal in a day or two.

Aviation associations criticized the move as talks about pay rises were already due to resume on Thursday.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the strikes “are totally inappropriate” as the government offered raises of three percent and other concessions in the last round of talks.

“They should discuss it first instead of striking,” de Maiziere added.

Union Verdi, which represents the staff, said the strike was planned to speed up the negotiations. The union rejected the offer of the three-percent raise over two years and asked for a six-percent pay raise instead.

"I hope that this signal will be understood and that an agreement will be reached in the third round [of talks] on Thursday and Friday," Verdi chief Frank Bsirske said.

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