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The
Duesseldorf airport on Monday said only 89 flights of a planned
330 were taking place while 29 were diverted to other airports
and seven were rescheduled for the next day.
Of Monday's usual 136 daily passenger flights scheduled for
Cologne Bonn airport, only two were set to operate as scheduled.
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 knock incomes and living
standards after the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine.
"If the employers continue to be obstructionist and do not
present us with results, then the reaction of the employees here
is clear," a Verdi spokesperson said at Cologne Bonn airport.
Verdi announced the strike on Friday after it said collective
bargaining efforts for public service workers and aviation
security workers had failed to come closer to an agreement.
The airports, which service airlines including Lufthansa,
Turkish Airlines and Aegean Airlines, were largely empty because
passengers had been informed of the strike in time to change
their plans.
The union brought air traffic to a standstill earlier this month
with one-day strikes at seven major airports, including the
Frankfurt and Munich hubs, affecting nearly 300,000 passengers.
Cities across the western state of North Rhine Westphalia,
including Cologne, Leverkusen and Bonn, were also affected by
public service worker strikes on Monday.
An agreement in negotiations on behalf of more than 2.5 million
employees of the federal government and local authorities is a
long way off, Verdi says.
Verdi and the German Civil Service Association are demanding
10.5% more pay for state employees, or at least 500 euros
($527.75) more a month.
($1 = 0.9474 euros)
(Writing by Miranda Murray and Friederike HeineEditing by
Matthias Williams and David Goodman)
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