BERLIN/SCHÖNEFELD (dpa-AFX) – Because of an announced warning strike, travelers at the capital’s airport BER must expect considerable disabilities on Monday. According to the airport, there are no regular departures. An airport spokesman said around 200 take-offs and around 27,000 passengers were affected. Many airlines also canceled their flights to Berlin-Brandenburg Airport this Monday, according to the airport’s website on Sunday. The situation is in flux, said the airport spokesman. Travelers were asked to check flight status with their airline.
The Verdi union has called for the security staff to go on warning strike. The warning strike is scheduled to begin at 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning at BER and end at midnight. Verdi expects around 300 participants. The security staff at the airports in Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen should also take part in the labor dispute.
According to union information, around 2,000 employees in Hamburg were called to the action at the start of the night shift on Sunday around 10 p.m. According to the airport, all 123 planned flights are therefore cancelled, and 50 of the 121 flights to Hamburg planned for Monday were canceled on Sunday.
“Massive disruptions to flight operations and a significant number of flight cancellations are to be expected,” said the airline Eurowings on Sunday on request. “Eurowings is not a collective bargaining partner in this dispute, but – like many other airlines – the person concerned,” it said. As far as possible, customers were offered alternatives or rebookings on the train.
According to the airport association ADV, a total of 351 departures are currently being cancelled. 45,000 passengers are directly affected. A total of almost 100,000 affected passengers can be expected, as flights from other airports will also be cancelled. The association criticized that travelers would once again become a pawn in the labor dispute and complained that the announcement had come at short notice. The passengers would hardly have a chance to look for alternatives.
The union cited the hitherto unsuccessful collective bargaining for adequate pay for aviation security workers for working at inconvenient times as the background. According to its own statements, Verdi has been in negotiations with the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS) for years. There was initially no comment from the federal association.
The surcharges have not been improved since 2006, and there has been talk of an increase since 2013, emphasized Verdi. It was most recently agreed in early 2019 to continue negotiations on this. According to Verdi, they were recorded in January and continued in February 2020. Because of the pandemic, the talks were not continued by the BDLS. According to the union, the BDLS was only willing to negotiate the demands after a new agreement in the 2022 wage round. The employers have not yet submitted an offer.
Already last January there were significant restrictions due to strikes at BER. At that time, central work areas had been on strike for a whole day and flight operations had been completely suspended for the whole day. Around 35,000 passengers were affected by the fact that around 300 take-offs and landings were cancelled.
At the time, the Verdi trade union had called on the employees of the ground handling services, the airport company and aviation security to go on a warning strike as part of the ongoing collective bargaining round. Around 1500 employees took part in a rally on the premises./mvk/DP/he