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Strikers at Frankfurt Airport: “A bitter day for our passengers”

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Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

The Ver.di union has threatened longer strikes in the ongoing collective bargaining dispute with Lufthansa. The willingness to strike on the ground has never been as high in the past 20 years as it is now, said the union's negotiator, Marvin Reschinsky, at a protest meeting with hundreds of participants in front of the Lufthansa administration at Frankfurt Airport.

The ground staff's warning strike sent a clear signal to the board: "We can go longer if you ask us to," he said. Management must significantly improve its current tariff offer for ground staff.

Operations at Frankfurt Airport were restricted all day because main customer Lufthansa canceled up to 90 percent of its 600 planned takeoffs and landings due to the 27-hour warning strike. "It's a bitter day for our passengers," said Lufthansa human resources director Michael Niggemann in the ZDF morning magazine. The escalation chosen by Ver.di was not necessary.

Ver.di sees the warning strike as a great success. At the protest meetings, technicians, counter staff and planners gave vent to their dissatisfaction with the workload and thinly staffed shifts. Reschinsky accused the management of treating its own people disrespectfully. He said: "The two-class society between flying personnel and ground personnel must finally be ended." Rally participants were very dissatisfied with their working conditions. A baggage investigator reported: »We have 50 percent fewer employees than before Corona, but the work has remained the same. Actually, we should demand even more." A colleague of hers said: "We need the increase to live on, everything has become much more expensive."

Outages also on Thursday

Ver.di has called on employees of various Lufthansa companies at the Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf locations to go on a warning strike. As a precautionary measure, the airline canceled between 80 and 90 percent of its 1,000 planned flights for Wednesday and more than 100,000 passengers had to reschedule. The airline had warned against coming to the airport at all.

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More than half of all flights at Munich Airport were canceled due to the warning strike. The airport said that out of around 730 flight movements from all companies, a good 400 take-offs and landings were affected. At Hamburg Airport, the warning strike by Lufthansa ground staff will continue to have consequences for Hamburg Airport's flight schedule on Thursday. After the complete cancellation of all 23 planned Lufthansa flights on Wednesday, four more flights were canceled for Thursday morning. There are three flights to Munich and one flight to Frankfurt. In return, corresponding flights from these two Lufthansa hubs will also be canceled. The flights of the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings should continue to take off as planned.

In the ongoing collective bargaining dispute, Ver.di is demanding 12.5 percent more salary, but at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months. There will also be a group-wide uniform inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros. Lufthansa points to past wage increases and has offered 13 percent more money and an inflation compensation bonus for a period of three years. The next round of negotiations is planned for February 12th in Frankfurt am Main.

Further tariff conflict at airports

Reschinsky accuses management of treating its own people disrespectfully. "The two-class society between flying personnel and the ground must finally be ended." Niggemann faced the strikers' criticism in front of the Aviation Center in Frankfurt - appealed for understanding that the company urgently needs these profits for the upcoming investments in new aircraft and technology. The employees should also get their share, the manager promises, whistling loudly. Niggemann recalls the deal 18 months ago with salary increases of up to 19 percent. The current offer presented would bring a further 13 percent within three years.

Aviation security forces had already gone on strike across German airports last week. In the first negotiations after the warning strike, the collective bargaining parties did not come closer together. After discussions in Berlin, the Ver.di tariff commission described a new offer from the employers' association BDLS as "completely inadequate". According to their own statements, the employers have offered higher overtime bonuses and hourly wages for a period of 24 months. That wasn't enough for the union because it wouldn't compensate for the employees' losses in purchasing power.

“Our goal remains to permanently compensate for the employees’ loss of purchasing power,” said Ver.di negotiator Wolfgang Pieper. There will now be internal discussions about how to proceed until the next round of negotiations on February 21st and 22nd in Berlin. During the first warning strike on February 1st, numerous German airports remained closed. According to estimates by the airport association ADV, around 1,100 flights were canceled and 200,000 passengers were affected.

apr/dpa