The announced warning strike by the Verdi union among security staff at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport has begun. In the morning from 3.30 a.m. numerous employees in the aviation security area, in passenger control and in personnel and goods control stopped work, as Verdi union secretary Enrico Rümker confirmed to the German Press Agency.
Shortly after the warning strike was announced, the airport announced that no passenger flights would take off today. It will therefore not only remain unusually quiet in the large hall of Terminal 1. Some planned landings are also cancelled. Verdi has called on workers to stop working by midnight.
Long list of strikes
The union wants to increase the pressure on employers with whom it is negotiating bonuses for inconvenient working hours, such as weekends, and rules on overtime pay. The action at the capital’s airport joins a long list of strikes, especially in traffic, in recent weeks.
Most recently, airports were on strike on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and the railway and transport union also paralyzed rail traffic nationwide for hours on Friday.
BER itself is on strike for the third time this year, and on other days passengers at BER were indirectly affected by work stoppages at other airports. During the strike in mid-March, all departures of passenger flights were canceled – as is the case now – and no plane was able to land at BER during the warning strike at the end of January.
Verdi warns: “Don’t keep playing for time”
“We once again urge the BDLS (Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies) to submit a negotiable offer on April 27th and 28th and not to play for time, otherwise there is a risk of further strikes in air traffic in May and at Pentecost,” said Wolfgang Pieper from the Verdi union on Saturday on the ongoing wage dispute. The airport association ADV criticized the labor dispute as excessive and called for a quick solution at the negotiating table.
