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.
‘Complete Chaos’
Simone Perroni, an economics professor at University of Trento, arrived Thursday evening 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, adding that he had to hold his planned in-person meeting in Amsterdam from a cafe in the Frankfurt airport instead.
Pardeep Parashar, an administration professional, arrived in Frankfurt Thursday night on an Air India flight from Delhi. He was supposed to fly for work to Warsaw with Lufthansa on Friday and from there to Szczecin. He still hasn’t been told when he’ll fly tomorrow or where he’ll sleep tonight.
“It’s been a terrible experience,” Parashar said. “Next time, I will fly directly to Warsaw from Delhi.”
Both Perroni and Parashar said they found out about the cancellations upon arrival in Frankfurt last night and then had to line up with more than 500 people at a service desk by three people. They waited more than four hours to be put in a hotel.
“It was complete chaos,” Perroni said.
Broader Strikes
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.
Read more: Lufthansa’s Global Fleet Grounded by Four Snapped Cables
Labor 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.
“The employees are jointly putting pressure on the respective employers because no results have been achieved in the previous negotiations,” Verdi official Christine Behle said in a statement, pointing to another round of talks on Feb. 22.
Air traffic, particularly leisure travel, has bounced back strongly from the pandemic. The surge caused chaos at airports across Europe last summer after operators and ground personnel struggled to meet demand.
Strikes are also taking place at Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen airports. Verdi held a similar walkout at Berlin’s main hub last month, cutting Germany’s capital off from international air travel.
Outside the Frankfurt airport, Verdi’s Christoph Miemetz rallied the striking workers. “They’ve messed around with us for years at the airport,” he said to loud cheers. “We have tough years behind us.”
