No take-offs and landings – strike at Geneva airport continues until Saturday evening – News

  • Geneva airport employees stopped work at 4:00 am.
  • The reason for this is a new salary model, which the management has approved.
  • Due to the planned strike, Geneva Airport has decided to suspend flight operations in the early morning.
  • Now the strikers want to continue the walkout until Saturday evening.

The decision to continue the strike was almost unanimous, said Jamshid Pouranpir, union secretary at VPOD. “The management’s proposal consisted of some accompanying measures to better administer the bitter pill,” he added.

Negotiations between the airport management and the strikers took place during the morning – apparently without success, as SRF domestic correspondent Urs Gilgen explains. He is currently at Geneva Airport. Shortly before 10 a.m., a trade union delegate stepped in front of the strikers and asked whether the airport management’s proposals would be accepted. The crowd yelled no. “Unless a new proposal comes up, this could be a pretty busy day for airline passengers and airport staff,” says Urs Gilgen.

The head of Geneva Airport, André Schneider, came personally to make suggestions to the strikers. He left the airport to boos from the staff. The new wage model, approved by the board of directors on Thursday, was the reason for this industrial action, which is taking place at the beginning of the long holidays.

First take-offs and landings again since 10.15 a.m

After no planes took off or landed between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., air traffic has now resumed, according to Geneva Airport. Geneva Airport reports on Twitter that there have been initial take-offs and landings. These include Air Canada and United Airlines flights.

The strike meetings are to gradually decide on the further course of the strike coordinated by the public sector union VPOD. The strike takes place on the first day of the holiday, when almost 54,000 passengers were expected for a total of 394 flights during the day.

Passengers as a pawn in the power play


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Valérie Wacker, correspondent for French-speaking Switzerland: “Employee representatives say it is currently not possible to predict how the model will affect wages. The airport management, on the other hand, writes in a communiqué that not a single salary will be reduced, but that some employees will no longer receive wage increases.

So there is a power play going on at Geneva Airport between employers and employees. And on Friday, up to 54,000 people who are hungry for holidays become their plaything.

Airline passengers are called that Consult Geneva airport website Or contact your airline.”

Around 250 employees and trade unionists had already gathered in front of Geneva Airport the morning before the company management made its decision to protest against the new wage model. This is the first walkout by Geneva airport staff since its creation in 1919.

According to the union, around 1,000 employees will be affected by the planned changes, mainly those who work in security areas such as passport control.

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