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Munich Airport (in summer 2022)
Photo: MICHAELA REHLE / REUTERS
The announcement came earlier this week, and now the Ver.di union has put it into practice.
A day-long warning strike has started at several German airports.
The labor dispute has begun, said a union spokesman in Hanover on Thursday evening.
The airport association ADV expects around 2,340 flights and around 295,000 affected passengers to be canceled by Friday evening.
The strike in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen sometimes started with the night shift on Thursday from 9 or 10 p.m. and led to the first flight cancellations in the evening.
At most of the affected airports, regular flight operations have come to a virtual standstill, with only individual flights or special connections taking place.
In three ongoing collective bargaining disputes, Ver.di has simultaneously called on employees to strike in order to increase the pressure.
Lufthansa will completely cease flight operations at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs on Friday and cancel a total of over 1,300 flights.
Airlines and airports speak of an unprecedented escalation.
“Ver.di is completely overstepping the mark here and carrying out the collective bargaining conflict on the backs of the passengers,” said the President of the aviation lobby BDL, Jost Lammers.
"An entire country is to be cut off from international air traffic in an unreasonable way," the airport association ADV also complained.
The passengers would become the »plaything of the Verdi strike tactics«.
Verdi has called on public sector employees, ground staff and aviation security staff to go on strike.
“The employees are jointly putting pressure on the respective employers because no results have been achieved in the previous negotiations,” explained Verdi deputy chairwoman Christine Behle.
Government machines should not be affected
She advocates not only higher wages, but also better working conditions.
The trade unionist emphasized that in the 2022 holiday season, the lack of staff at airports led to long queues, massive delays and thousands of flight cancellations.
»From our point of view, measures are now needed to ensure that more employees come to the airport so that the summer of 2023 does not become just as chaotic,« said Behle.
Airlines now have to cancel flights, rebook passengers to other days or the train.
Some connections could be diverted to unaffected airports.
Düsseldorf Airport, for example, handles around 20 take-offs and landings for Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt.
The strike coincides with the Munich Security Conference, to which high-ranking politicians and diplomats from around the world are arriving on Friday.
In addition to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US Vice President Kamala Harris, many heads of government, defense and foreign ministers are expected.
Flights in the course of the security conference, such as government aircraft, should not be affected by the strike at Munich Airport.
jok/Reuters