More than half a million travelers encountered significant disruptions as employees at 13 major German airports, including the crucial Frankfurt and Munich hubs, initiated a strategic 24-hour strike on Monday.
Thousands of flights were canceled as the Verdi labor union commenced so-called warning strikes at key airports throughout Germany. The impact was particularly intense at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest aviation hub, where an unprecedented 94 percent of flights were grounded, with 1,054 out of 1,116 scheduled operations canceled. Ripple effects threaten to extend into Tuesday’s operations, according to reports from German news agency dpa, citing airport traffic management. Berlin Airport canceled all its regular flights, while major centers, such as Hamburg and Munich, were compelled to drastically reduce or entirely suspend their services, as reported by The Associated Press.
The walkout, a tactic referred to as a warning strike that is typical in German labor disputes, involves concurrent negotiations for both airport security personnel and public sector workers, with talks set to resume on different dates this month. Negotiations for federal workers are scheduled to resume on Friday, while airport security staff will reconvene at the bargaining table on March 26.
Read more: Airport chaos in U.S. and Europe
Broader public sector strikes
The airport disruption is part of a larger wave of public sector strikes occurring across Germany this week, led by the Verdi union and impacting 2.5 million workers from various services.
Since midnight, employees from the public service of airport operators, ground handling services, and air security departments have been participating in a 24-hour strike due to various wage disputes, an unnamed spokesman for the union reported.
Affected airports and flight cancellations
The warning strikes impact major airports, including Hanover, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, and Stuttgart. According to an earlier estimate by the airport association ADV, more than 3,400 flights are anticipated to be canceled because of the strike in public service and ground handling services alone, affecting approximately 510,000 passengers who will not be able to travel as planned.
Upcoming wage negotiations and Union demands
The union is demanding, among other things, an 8 percent increase in wages, or at least EUR350 ($380) more per month, along with three additional days off. The employers have not yet made a concrete offer.
The union’s demands extend beyond salary increases, incorporating better workplace safety standards, enhanced vacation allowances, additional shift work benefits, and greater worker autonomy in selecting doctors for mandatory health screenings. The association of Germany’s airport operators assessed the strike’s impact on Monday as substantial, noting that more than half of Germany’s typical 6,000 daily flights were facing cancellation, with around 3,400 flights set to be grounded, leaving over 510,000 passengers stranded. While operators protested the abrupt action, a Verdi spokesman told Deutsche Welle news network: “The walkout was necessary so that the impact of the strike could really be felt.”
