Ground staff at German airline Lufthansa will go on strike on Wednesday (Feb 7) in the latest industrial action to hit Europe’s biggest economy, the Verdi union said.

Some 25,000 staff will take part in the walkout, which will last for around 27 hours from 0300 GMT, the union said in a statement on Monday.

The workers are demanding a 12.5-per cent pay increase over 12 months as well as one-off bonuses to counter inflation, it said.

The strike will affect Germany’s biggest airport in Frankfurt as well as those in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Duesseldorf.

“There are likely to be major flight cancellations and delays,” the union said.

Lufthansa said it was working on a “special flight schedule” and more than 100,000 passengers would be affected.

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The airline said in a statement it had offered workers increases totalling more than 13 per cent over the next three years, as well as the “prompt payment of significant inflation bonuses”.

But the union said it deemed the offer “totally unacceptable”.

“Lufthansa employees already have around 10 per cent less in their pockets. Despite record profits, this situation is set to worsen,” said Marvin Reschinsky, Verdi’s chief negotiator in wage talks for ground staff.

The strike comes as Germany faces a growing wave of social unrest in the transport sector.

Pilots with German airline Discover, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, were staging a 48-hour strike until the end of Monday.

Last week, airport security staff and public transport workers across Germany walked off the job.

And two weeks ago, train drivers staged a five-day walkout, their longest ever and the fourth time they have gone on strike since November. AFP