Strike at German airports cancels flights

Security workers at most of Germany’s major airports walked off the job on Thursday in a one-day strike to step up pressure in a pay dispute, prompting widespread flight cancellations.

The union, which announced the walkout on Tuesday afternoon, called on workers to strike at 11 airports: Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hannover, Dresden, Bremen and Erfurt. Airports in Bavaria — including Munich, the country’s second busiest — were not affected.

All departures for the day from Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart were canceled before the strike started. About four-fifths of flights in Cologne and onethird in Duesseldorf were also canceled.

In Frankfurt, the operator of Germany’s busiest airport said security checkpoints outside the transit area would remain closed. It advised passengers planning to start their journeys there not to come to the airport.

However, there were connections for transferring passengers; Lufthansa planned to operate much of its planned schedule, including intercontinental flights.

Airport operator group ADV estimated that about 1,100 flights in total would be canceled or delayed, affected some 200,000 passengers.

Three rounds of labor negotiations have failed to produce a pay agreement for some 25,000 security workers. The union was seeking a raise of 2.80 euros per hour ($3.03) for all employees and calling for bonuses for overtime work to kick in from the first extra hour.

An employers’ association said it offered a 4 percent raise this year and 3 percent next year, as well as concessions on when overtime bonuses kick in.

The talks are due to resume on February 6. Short “warning strikes” are a common tactic in German contract negotiations.