Staff responsible for checking passengers and cargo have held an 18-hour warning strike at Germany's biggest airports. Hundreds of flights were cancelled.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
Advertisement
Delays across German airports
Flights across Germany face delays as security staff at airports conduct an 18-hour strike over pay. Officials at Frankfurt airport have cancelled 570 of a planned 1,200 arrivals and departures.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
220,000 passengers across Germany affected by airport security staff strike
Germany's largest airport Frankfurt International had to cancel hundreds of flights as security workers staged an 18-hour strike over pay. Other airports affected include Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Hannover, Dresden, Leipzig/Halle, Dortmund and Erfurt.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
German flag carrier Lufthansa has said it will cancel at least 500 flights
Security staff members have walked off the job at nine German airports over pay issues. Rates currently vary nationwide, with staff in some airports in eastern Germany earning around 14 euros hourly, compared with just over 17 euros for their peers in the capital and western parts of the country.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
Security checkpoints are empty
Officials at Munich airport said that although the Verdi union called for action there as well, passenger security checks are carried out by a public-sector contractor whose workers would not strike. However, some flights to and from airports affected by the walkout would be cancelled, it said.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
German airports experiencing significant flight disruptions
The workers union Verdi which represents about 23,000 aviation security workers in Germany says that it was forced to ramp up pressure, because talks with the employers' association were deadlocked. The union wants wages raised to 20 euros ($23) per hour for workers carrying out passenger, freight, personnel and goods checks at all German airports.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
Many flights are leaving empty as the planes are needed elsewhere
Passengers have to wait in a single file line to get through security. Long lines are seen at Frankfurt and Munich airports as passengers deal with the 18-hour walkout of employees of the Verdi union in Germany.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
German officials estimate 220,000 passengers affected by strike
Security workers at the smaller Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen airports started their strike at midnight. Frankfurt staffers joined them two hours later, with a view to striking
until 2000 local time (1900 GMT) on Tuesday.
Image: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
6 images1 | 6
German airport association ADV warned that the strike action would "paralyze" the German flight network all day Tuesday.
Frankfurt operator Fraport axed 617 out of around 1,200 scheduled flights at Germany's largest airport.
At Germany's second largest airport, Munich, a spokeswoman said around 100, mainly domestic flights were cancelled.
The coordinated industrial action marked a major escalation in the dispute between unions and employers. There had been walkouts at Berlin's airports last Monday and in Stuttgart, Cologne-Bonn and Duesseldorf last Thursday.
The DBB and Verdi trade unions began their walkout at 2 a.m. local time (0100 UTC) on Tuesday. The action was in support of a pay claim seeking to increase the hourly rate for staff to €20 ($23): "Because employers have shown no willingness to make a better offer, the extension of warning strikes has become necessary," Verdi board member Ute Kittel said.
Stranded passengers sought information from airline desksImage: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
The cancelled flights on a display board in FrankfurtImage: Reuters/K. Pfaffenbach
Officials at Munich airport said that although Verdi called for action there as well, passenger security checks were carried out by a public-sector contractor whose workers would not strike.
Talks between unions and employers over the dispute are due to start again on January 23.
