German airports stalled by walkouts

Flights in and out of two of Germany's busiest airports were grounded this week as a simmering dispute between the United Services Trade Union, or ver.di, and the airport authorities escalated into industrial action.

The public-sector union brought chaos to airports in Munich and Hamburg on Thursday and was set to do the same on Friday, with airlines canceling about 80 percent of flights at Munich Airport, which was the hardest-hit, according to the Reuters news agency.

The airport, Germany's second-largest by passenger numbers after Frankfurt, advised passengers to check with their carriers before arriving, saying: "Significant impacts on traffic operations are to be expected. Passengers are therefore advised to check the current flight status with their airline before traveling to the airport."

The German Press Agency, or DPA, said public-sector workers walked off the job at Hamburg Airport but that flights in and out of it were less seriously impacted than flights in and out of Munich.

The strikes were the latest chapter in a long-running dispute between ver.di and the airport authorities over pay and conditions, and followed walk-outs at airports in Cologne and Dusseldorf earlier in the week.

The Agence France-Presse news agency said only 100 of 830 scheduled takeoffs and landings were likely to have been completed at Munich Airport on Thursday.

The German Airports Association, or ADV, told Reuters the latest strikes had hit the travel plans of around 300,000 people and should not be tolerated.

"Two-day strikes that cut off German metropolitan regions from international air travel go far beyond what could qualify as token strikes," the ADV added.

The union said the walk-outs it organized, which it has called token strikes or warning strikes, involved unionized workers in the airports' administration departments as well as their maintenance, IT, security, and baggage-handling departments.

Munich Airport handles almost 42 million passengers a year and is one of the busiest travel hubs in Europe and the industrial action caused knock-on disruption at many other airports with links to it.

Ver.di, which has around 1.9 million members and is the second-largest trade union in Germany, said it wants the federal government and the municipal authorities to get involved in its dispute with the airport authorities and force them to improve their pay offer. It wants an 8 percent pay rise for workers it represents, or at least 350 euros more per month. And it is also calling for additional bonuses for workers in stressful jobs, such as front-line security staff, and more rest days.

The latest round of industrial action is set to end at midnight on Friday and the next round of talks between the two sides is set to begin on March 14.

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