Strike at German airports grounds nearly 300,000 passengers
Send a link to a friend
[February 17, 2023]
By Klaus Lauer
BERLIN (Reuters) -A 24-hour strike at seven German airports, including
Frankfurt and Munich, was set to affect nearly 300,000 passengers on
Friday, as unionised workers pressed for higher wages and threatened a
summer of "chaos" if their demands were not met.
The strike coincided with the start of the Munich Security Conference,
with more than 40 heads of state and 60 ministers expected to attend.
In an early sign of the disruption, Romania's foreign minister, unable
to board a cancelled flight, will be forced to fly to Austria and then
make the more than four-hour drive to Munich, a Romanian embassy
official said.
It is the latest in a series of strikes and protests that have hit major
European economies, including France, Britain and Spain, as higher food
and energy prices knocked incomes and living standards following the
pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Around 295,000 passengers are affected by the cancellation of some 2,340
flights at Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and
Stuttgart airports, according to the ADV airports association.
"We really haven't had such an escalation through strike action," ADV's
Ralph Beisel told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. "When we look at the
airport terminals this morning, it reminds us more of the worst days of
the coronavirus and less of a warning strike."
German trade union Verdi announced the strike on Wednesday after it said
collective bargaining efforts for ground service staff, public sector
officials and aviation security workers had made little progress.
[to top of second column]
|
Workers hold a banner which reads "We
are worth it" during a strike, after German trade union Verdi called
on workers at Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund,
Hanover and Bremen airports to go on a 24-hour strike, in Frankfurt,
Germany February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Heiko Becker
The union has pressed for a 10.5% wage increase, or at least 500
euros a month.
"If nothing is done about pay now, we will all be in for another
chaotic summer," Verdi Deputy Chair Christine Behle told Inforadio
on Friday. "It's about sending a really strong signal."
Among the airlines affected, Lufthansa said it had been forced to
cancel more than 1,300 flights and suspend operations at the hub
airports Frankfurt and Munich on Friday.
The carrier declined to give an estimate of the cost of the strike
but has on previous occasions said such action costs it 10-15
million euros a day.
The head of Verdi, Frank Werneke, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Sonntagszeitung newspaper that strike action could expand to
hospitals and garbage collection.
($1 = 0.9394 euros)
(Reporting by Klaus Lauer and Lisa Jucca; writing by Miranda Murray
and Matthias Williams; editing by Jason Neely and Sharon Singleton)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|