Status: 04/20/2023 5:47 p.m
Strikes are once again disrupting air traffic in Germany. Today, travelers at Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf and Hamburg airports were affected. Tomorrow there will also be a strike in Stuttgart.
Tens of thousands of passengers had to look around for travel alternatives today: warning strikes by the trade union ver.di brought air traffic at Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Hamburg airports to a large extent to a standstill. Around 38,000 passengers were affected by flight cancellations at Hamburg Airport, around 28,000 in Cologne/Bonn and around 27,000 in Düsseldorf, according to the operators.
It remained relatively quiet in the terminals at all airports – most passengers were informed and did not even drive to the airports. “The departure terminals are empty, the situation is quiet,” said a spokeswoman for Hamburg Airport
Numerous failures at airports
In Düsseldorf, about half of the planned 400 flight movements were canceled, as the airport announced. 28 flights were diverted to other airports. A similar picture is expected for tomorrow, a spokesman said. In Cologne/Bonn, 168 of the 204 planned flight movements did not take place over the course of the day, as a spokesman said.
In Hamburg, no departures were possible due to the strike. A third of the arrivals were also canceled, as the airport announced. In the Hanseatic city alone, 305 flights were originally planned today. The airport criticized the action: “The strike affects many bystanders who will hardly have any alternatives tomorrow due to the additional train strike.” Work stoppages are also planned for rail transport on Friday. The railway and transport union EVG announced a warning strike from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m.
While work will be stopped on both days in Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Hamburg, this will only be the case in Stuttgart tomorrow. All departures have already been canceled here. In Baden-Baden/Karlsruhe, the strike should last until midnight on Saturday. The employees in the aviation security area, in passenger control, personnel and goods control and in service areas are called upon.
Rupert Wiederwald, WDR: “The strike is primarily about money, of course, but above all it’s about working conditions.”
tagesschau24 10:00 a.m., April 20, 2023
Demand for time supplements
The background to this is negotiations between ver.di and the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS) on surcharges for night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work as well as regulations on overtime pay for security and service staff. Collective bargaining on April 11 and 12 had not resulted in an agreement.
According to ver.di, a written offer from the BDLS is insufficient and cannot be agreed because it does not bring any improvements for work on Saturdays and Sundays, surcharges for night work are too low and are only planned from 10 p.m. and not from 8 p.m. Employers for full-time and part-time employees did not want to pay any supplements for overtime or overtime. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for April 27th and 28th.