Ver.di: warning strikes at airports have begun – ZEIT ONLINE

at six German airports have begun with the start of the morning shift which strikes the services union ver.di. Tens of thousands of passengers have to prepare for delays and failures. there is a strike at the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne / Bonn, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Hannover. The greatest impact has the strike in Munich and Frankfurt. There, the ground staff performs loud ver.di since early morning no work. Munich Airport therefore security controls were adjusted.

A spokesman for the union said that in Frankfurt starting at 8 am, the airport fire will strike. At Cologne / Bonn airport you have already resigned from their work. There no takeoffs and landings are possible. Without fire department is a flight operations for safety reasons no longer possible.

Also in Berlin led to flight cancellations. While it is not a strike in Tegel and Schoenefeld, but are about 100 flights canceled as a precaution to airport information. falling from around 40 flights at Leipzig / Halle and Dresden. Overall, the airlines Lufthansa and Air Berlin had to cancel hundreds of flights due to strikes and rebook the passengers on other flights or train.

Ver.di has called under the collective bargaining round of public service to the strikes at airports. The union is demanding six percent wage increase for 2.1 million public sector workers. Union leader Frank Bsirske defended the strikes against criticism. Meaning of such work stoppages was to speed up collective bargaining, he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung . “I hope that this signal is understood and we come to an agreement in the third round on Thursday and Friday.”

The strike reacting ver.di “on an offer that wants the employees expect a real wage loss” Bsirske said. He denied the view of the employer that this offer amounts to three percent for two years. Since the three percent would be offered in two stages, each of the two increases until every June should be effective, it amounts to two years beginning with only 1.8 percent. Inflation will, however, in this and next year, taken together amount to two percent.

Even Christine Behle, deputy chairman of the Lufthansa supervisory board and board member of the ver.di union, defended the call for work stoppage at the airports. As ver.di board member she could call for strikes, in which among other companies, Lufthansa is concerned, Behle said the Image . “I see no conflict between the supervisory activities and the strikes.”