Germany’s biggest airports come to a standstill as workers strike

GERMANY’S two largest airports came to a virtual standstill on Friday (Feb 17) as ground staff staged another strike over pay, exacerbating an already chaotic week for air travel after a system outage brought down Deutsche Lufthansa’s operations. 

Security and other ground crew in Frankfurt and Munich began their one-day walkouts early on Friday. The action led to 1,300 flight cancellations for national carrier Lufthansa, which is also the biggest airline at the two hubs. 

The renewed travel snags came just days after the airline’s global fleet was temporarily grounded on Wednesday, when construction workers in Frankfurt severed a communications cable. While passengers were warned ahead of Friday’s strikes, the protests come at a time when air travel was enjoying a robust comeback from the pandemic.

Members of labour union Verdi paraded through virtually empty halls in Frankfurt Airport on Friday, clad in high-visibility vests and waving flags. The demonstrations are driven by the soaring cost of living after Russia’s war in Ukraine caused energy prices and inflation to jump. They risk complicating travel plans for delegates attending the Munich Security Conference, a major annual gathering of defence- and foreign-policy makers.

Verdi called the strike, citing workers’ dissatisfaction over collective-bargaining negotiations with the various companies and public agencies that employ ground staff. The union is demanding a pay increase of 500 euros (S$713) a month for some workers, and higher holiday-shift compensation for others. 

“The employees are jointly putting pressure on the respective employers because no results have been achieved in the previous negotiations,” Verdi official Christine Behle said, pointing to another round of talks on Feb 22.

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The strikes are also taking place at the Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen airports. Last month, Verdi held a similar walkout at Frankfurt Airport, Berlin’s main hub, cutting Germany’s capital off from international air travel. 

It is not just Germany where protests have erupted over what workers consider unfair pay amid soaring cost-of-living expenses. In the United Kingdom, rail workers have brought large parts of the country’s train network to a standstill in recent weeks, and in France, people are striking against government plans to extend the retirement age. BLOOMBERG