Germany’s top airports come to standstill as workers strike

Bloomberg

Germany’s two largest airports came to a virtual standstill today as ground staff stage another strike over pay, exacerbating an already chaotic week for air travel after a system outage brought down Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s operations two days ago.
Security and other ground crew in Frankfurt and Munich began their one-day walkouts early Friday, leading to 1,300 flight cancellations for national carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the biggest carrier at the two hubs.
The renewed travel snags come just days after the airline’s global fleet was temporarily grounded when construction workers in Frankfurt severed a communications cable. While passengers were warned ahead of time of the pending strike today, the protests come at a time when air travel was enjoying a robust comeback from the coronavirus pandemic, leading to surging traffic.
Verdi workers paraded through virtually empty airport halls in Frankfurt on Friday, clad in high-vis vests and waving flags. The protests are driven by the soaring cost of living after Russia’s war in Ukraine caused energy prices and inflation to jump. They risk complicating travel plans for delegates attending the Munich Security Conference — a major annual gathering of defense and foreign policymakers.
‘Simone Perroni, an economics professor at University of Trento, in Frankfurt on a delayed Lufthansa flight from Verona, Italy. After missing his connecting flight to Amsterdam, he had to stay the night and was told he couldn’t fly Friday due to the strike. “You lose hours of work and have your family waiting at home. It’s been very frustrating,” Perroni said.
It’s not just Germany where protests have erupted over what workers consider unfair pay amid soaring cost-of-living expenses.
UK rail workers have temporarily brought large parts of the country’s train network to a virtual standstill in recent works, and in France, people are protesting plans of extending the retirement age.
Labour union Verdi called the strike, citing dissatisfaction over collective-bargaining negotiations with the various companies and public agencies that employ ground staff. It’s demanding a pay increase of €500 ($543) a month for some workers and higher holiday-shift compensation for others.
Strikes are also taking place at Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen airports.