Due to warning strikes, many connections at Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn airports are canceled this Monday. At the largest airport in North Rhine-Westphalia in the state capital, over 1,000 employees have been asked to stop working. The strike started at 3 a.m., said a spokesman for the Verdi union. 700 to 800 strikers are therefore expected on site.
In Düsseldorf, 330 flight movements were actually planned. 89 of them are to take place. 205 arrivals and departures were canceled and 36 were moved to other airports or the following day, according to an airport spokesman. There should be an emergency operation for ambulance and relief goods flights, for example.
In Cologne/Bonn, the first work stoppages began late on Sunday evening. According to Verdi, employees of aviation security are called there, i.e. employees in personnel and goods control as well as freight control. “All control points are closed,” said a Verdi spokesman in the morning. The airport announced on Sunday that 131 scheduled passenger flights could not take place between 6 a.m. on Monday and 6 a.m. on Tuesday. 136 are regularly planned during this period.
In Cologne there had also been legal disputes between the airport and Verdi over the occupation of the airport fire brigade. In the end, both sides agreed that it must include 24 emergency workers during the warning strike.
The Verdi and Komba unions have called for the warning strikes. The background to this is the negotiations for employees in the public sector at the federal and municipal level, as well as the nationwide negotiations for employees in aviation security.
In addition to the two largest airports in NRW, warning strikes are also planned in many other areas of public life in the most populous federal state on Monday, such as on buses and light rail vehicles, in daycare centers and offices. Several rallies are also planned.
Verdi has announced, among other things, that many daycare centers in Cologne, Bonn, Troisdorf, Hennef and Gummersbach are affected by the warning strikes. This also applies to municipal hospitals and waste disposal companies in the Verdi district of Cologne-Bonn-Leverkusen. Citizens would have to be prepared for longer waiting times in offices. In Münsterland, Verdi called for warning strikes at some city administrations and municipal companies.
The employers had presented an offer during the nationwide negotiations for employees in the federal and local governments. It includes a pay increase of five percent in two steps and one-off payments totaling 2,500 euros. The unions rejected the offer as insufficient. Verdi and the civil servants’ association are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more per month. Collective bargaining is scheduled to continue on March 27th.
Press release Verdi for Cologne and Düsseldorf airports Press release Komba for Düsseldorf airport
