More than a thousand Lufthansa flights were canceled this Wednesday for a 24 hour break of the German airline’s ground staff, affecting tens of thousands of passengers, according to the dpa news agency.
Around 134,000 passengers had to change their travel plans or cancel them altogether and at least 47 calls had already been canceled on Tuesday, the German news agency reported.
Frankfurt and Munich are the airports most affected by the strike, but flights were also canceled in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart and Cologne.
The airline has advised passengers not to travel to the affected airports as most counters will be unstaffed.
In a statement released Monday, the Verdi union says it has issued a strike notice for the period from 03:45 (01:45 GMT) today to 06:00 Thursday (04:00 GMT), “to increase the pressureon the management of the company, demanding wage increases of 9.5%.
The strike at Lufthansa covers the workers of the landnamely maintenance, but also Aircraft towing vehicle operatorsessential for the proper functioning of the airport.
According to union leader Christine Behle, “the situation at airports is deteriorating and employees are increasingly stressed and overworked due to severe staffing shortages, high inflation and no raises for three years.”
Since the lifting of health restrictions at the beginning of the year, airlines and Airports have had difficulty responding to the strong increase in demandafter two years of reduced traffic during which the sector lost many employees.
More than 7,000 employees are currently missing in the German aviation sector, according to a study by the economic institute IW published at the end of June.
Source: Observadora
