Air traffic disrupted across Germany as security staff walk out

Security personnel have staged walkouts at several airports across Germany to demand higher wages, disrupting air travel.

Numerous flights were cancelled at Frankfurt Airport due to the strike organised by trade union ver.di, German news agency DPA reported on Tuesday.

Starting at 2am local time (01:00 GMT), employees of the cargo and passenger controls at Germany’s largest airport stopped working, a spokesperson for Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, or ver.di, said in the morning.

Only passengers with layovers were able to go through security checks in Frankfurt.

Airport operator Fraport had called on all travellers hoping to board in Frankfurt not to travel to the airport.

Employees at Hamburg, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports also walked out of their jobs.

In Munich, Germany’s second-largest airport, a walkout has been under way since Monday afternoon.

Other airports, including Berlin, Duesseldorf and Hannover, cancelled dozens of flights on Monday due to one-day strikes there.

Wage dispute

The walkouts are part of a wage dispute between ver.di and the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies.

The union is negotiating with the employers’ association for a new agreement for about 25,000 security staff nationwide.

Ver.di is demanding an increase in hourly wages of at least 1 euro ($1.1), among other things.

Three rounds of negotiations have so far failed to produce a result. The sides plan to meet in Berlin later this week for further negotiations.