German air travellers face “massive” upheaval on Tuesday when security staff at Frankfurt airport, the nation’s largest, are set to walk off the job in a battle for better pay that has already caused hundreds of flight cancellations.
Germany’s powerful Verdi union announced on Friday that the Frankfurt strike would start at 2:00 am and end at 8:00 pm.
It marks another escalation in their standoff with employers after walkouts by security personnel at airports in Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart this week led to more than 800 flights being scrapped, affecting over 100,000 passengers.
The scale of Tuesday’s strike was not immediately clear but a spokesman for airport operator Fraport warned it would have “a massive impact on tens of thousands of travellers”.
Fraport urged all passengers with flights scheduled to depart from Frankfurt during the strike action not to come to the airport and check with their airlines or travel providers for further information.
Verdi meanwhile warned that more airports could join Tuesday’s “warning strike”.
The union, which represents some 23,000 aviation security workers across Germany, is pushing for a pay increase to €20 per hour.
Wages currently vary nationwide, with workers in some airports in eastern Germany earning around €14 hourly, compared with just over €17 for their peers in the capital and western parts of the country.
Employers’ association BDLS meanwhile is offering increases of between two and 6.4 percent.
The next round of negotiations will take place on January 23rd.
