Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Flights cancelled as strike disrupts German air travel

Passenger look at departures board at strike-hit Frankfurt airport on 27 March 2012

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at German airports as ground staff strike over demands for more pay.

National airline Lufthansa said it had scrapped more than 400 flights scheduled for Tuesday, mostly at Germany's biggest airport, Frankfurt.

The walkout is part of wider industrial action by public sector employees ahead of further talks due later this week.

Service workers' union Verdi is demanding a 6.5% pay rise for its two million members.

Munich, Duesseldorf, Stuttgart and Cologne-Bonn are also among the airports affected.

In earlier talks, the union rejected an offer of a 3.3% pay increase over 24 months from public sector employers. Further negotiations are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

The strike has also hit public transport, nursery schools, hospitals and local government services in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Verdi head Frank Bsirske said the "warning" strikes were called to "accelerate the talks".

The union says public sector workers are undervalued, and that their pay has been squeezed by national and local governments trying to keep spending down.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich condemned the action as "disproportionate".

"Given that we have made a substantial offer, mistreating the public with these strikes is not justified," Mr Friedrich told the Rheinische Post daily.



Source & Image : BBC

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