© Reuters. File photo: On February 17, 2023 in Frankfurt, Germany, the German trade union Verdi called for his 24-hour strike at Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hannover and Bremen airports Afterwards, the workers go on strike. REUTERS/HeikoBecker
BERLIN (Reuters) – Most flights at the regional airports of Germany’s Düsseldorf and Cologne-Bonn have been grounded on Monday following a 24-hour strike by the Verdi union, the airports said.
Düsseldorf Airport said on Monday that only 89 of the 330 scheduled flights had taken place, 29 were diverted to other airports and seven were rescheduled for the next day.
Of the 136 regular daily passenger flights scheduled to Cologne Bonn on Monday, only two were set to operate as scheduled.
This comes as high food and energy prices hurt incomes and living standards after the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as well as in Europe, including France, the United Kingdom and Spain. It’s the latest in a series of strikes and protests that have hit major economies.
A Verdi spokesperson told Cologne-Bonn airport that “the reaction of employees is clear when employers continue to sabotage and do not show results”.
Verdi announced the strike on Friday after it said collective bargaining efforts for public service workers and aviation security workers had failed to come close to an agreement.
Airports served by airlines such as Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Aegean Airlines were mostly empty as passengers were informed of the strike in time to change their plans.
Unions staged a one-day strike earlier this month at seven major airports, including hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, halting air traffic and affecting nearly 300,000 passengers.
Cities in western North Rhine-Westphalia, including Cologne, Leverkusen and Bonn, were also affected by the strike of public service workers on Monday.
An agreement under negotiation on behalf of more than 2.5 million federal and local government employees is still a long way off, Verdi said.
Verdi and the German Civil Service Association are demanding a 10.5% increase in salaries for civil servants, or a monthly increase of at least €500 ($527.75).
($1 = 0.9474 Euro)