BERLIN (Reuters) – A 24-hour strike scheduled for Friday at seven German airports was expected to affect nearly 300,000 passengers as employees demanded higher wages as the 59th Munich Security Conference kicked off today.
“The terminals are empty this morning,” a Hamburg airport spokesman said, adding that very few of the 32,000 expected passengers showed up.
Around 295,000 passengers are affected by the cancellation of some 2,340 flights at the airports of Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart, according to the airport association ADV.
“When we look at airport terminals this morning, it reminds us more of the worst days of coronavirus and less of a warning strike,” ADV’s Ralph Beisel told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.
German union Verdi announced the strike notice on Wednesday, saying collective bargaining efforts for ground service staff, public sector officials and airline security workers had made little progress.
“If nothing is done now about salaries, we’re all going to have another chaotic summer,” Christine Behle, vice president of Verdi, told Inforadio on Friday. “It’s about sending a very strong signal.”
The strike coincides with the 59th Munich Security Conference (MSC).
The Romanian foreign minister, who was due to arrive on one of the canceled flights, will travel to Austria and then make the more than four-hour drive to Munich, a Romanian embassy official said.
(Report Klaus Lauer and Lisa Jucca, written by Miranda Murray, French version Kate Entringer, edited by Matthieu Protard)
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