According to Verdi, in addition to the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, the airports in Hamburg, Stuttgart, Bremen, Hanover and Dortmund will also be on strike. “Due to the strike, delays, cancellations and even the partial standstill of air traffic can be expected to have a strong impact, especially in domestic air traffic,” explained Verdi.
Several airports – such as Frankfurt and Hamburg – advised passengers not to come to the airport on Friday. The airports called on passengers to get more information from their airline.
Regular flight operations “cannot be guaranteed” on Friday, said the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport. Even the transfer traffic at the largest German airport could not be handled.
There should also be no regular passenger flights at Munich Airport on Friday. The only exceptions to the cessation of operations are special flights such as relief flights and flights for medical, technical and other emergencies as well as flights for the Munich Security Conference, the operating company announced.
Hamburg Airport also informed on its website that regular flight operations would not be possible on Friday and that passengers should therefore not come to the airport in the first place.
According to the operator, neither take-offs nor landings are possible in Stuttgart on Friday either. Bremen Airport explained that the strike could “entail massive disruptions to all air traffic to and from Bremen throughout the day, since regular airport operations cannot be guaranteed”.
The largest German airline Lufthansa announced that on the day of the strike “a large part” of its flights would probably be affected by the effects of the strike.
According to Verdi, the work stoppages on Friday are a combined cross-industry warning strike. Employees in the public sector take part in it, as do employees in aviation security and ground handling services. Collective bargaining is currently taking place in parallel at various levels for all three sectors.
Negotiations have been going on in the federal and local public services since January. Verdi is currently on nationwide warning strikes to increase pressure on workers ahead of a second round of negotiations next week. According to the union, nationwide negotiations are also currently underway for aviation security employees. There are also local negotiations on wage increases for ground handling staff.
“The employees are jointly putting pressure on the respective employers because no results have been achieved in the previous negotiations,” explained Verdi Vice President Christine Behle.
Fraport HR manager Julia Kranenberg criticized: “The negotiations are still young – a walkout of this magnitude is completely excessive at this point in time.” The impact on passengers is “disproportionate”.
Ralph Beisel, the general manager of the airport association ADV, explained: “Industrial action aimed at shutting down seven airports all day long and thus affecting domestic German air traffic over a large area and a large number of international connections, go far beyond the scope of a warning strike and are completely inappropriate .”
Verdi and the German Association of Civil Servants are demanding a wage increase of 10.5 percent for a period of twelve months for 2.4 million federal and local employees because of the high inflation, but at least 500 euros more per month. The employer side rejects this. The first round of collective bargaining talks was adjourned in January without a result. The second round is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of next week.
