The walkout affects employees in the aviation security area, in passenger control and in personnel and goods control.
(Photo: IMAGO/Manngold)
Berlin No passenger flights will take off from Berlin-Brandenburg Airport on Monday due to a warning strike. The Verdi trade union has called on employees in the aviation security area, in passenger control and in personnel and goods control to stop working from 3.30 a.m. until midnight.
The airport then announced on Saturday that no passenger flight would be able to depart from BER. Arrivals could also be affected, the respective airline decides on this, said an airport spokesman. Passengers are called upon to obtain regular information from the airlines about their trips over the next few days.
The warning strike at the capital’s airport joins a long list of work stoppages, especially in traffic, in recent weeks. Only on Thursday and Friday were there warning strikes at the airports in Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Hamburg, and on Friday also at the airports in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden. The warning strikes led to numerous flight cancellations, affecting tens of thousands of people. There was still a strike at Baden Airport on Saturday.
Rail traffic also stood still for hours on Friday morning because the collective bargaining between the railway and transport union EVG and 50 railway companies is stalling. The union had called for a walkout for eight hours to increase the pressure on employers before the next negotiations.
The next talks between the EVG and Deutsche Bahn are scheduled for Tuesday – but a solution to the wage conflict is considered extremely unlikely. The EVG has already threatened that there could be further warning strikes.
Verdi demands holiday bonuses and payment rules for overtime
The background to the airport warning strikes on Thursday, Friday and Monday are negotiations on surcharges for night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work and regulations on overtime pay for security and service staff. Talks have been going on between Verdi and the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS) for some time.
“We once again urge the BDLS to submit a negotiable offer on April 27th and 28th and not to play for time, otherwise there is a risk of further strikes in air traffic in May and at Pentecost,” said Wolfgang Pieper from the Verdi am union Saturday according to notification.
The airport association ADV appealed to the collective bargaining partners to seek an agreement at the negotiating table. “An all-day strike that isolates the capital’s airport from international air traffic has long since had nothing to do with a warning strike,” the association said in a statement. Due to the short-notice announcement, the passengers affected hardly had a chance to “look for alternative travel options”.
Last strike in March
It is the third major warning strike this year at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport. As early as March 13, a work stoppage prevented all departures, the background to which was the negotiations about surcharges for security personnel.
During a warning strike on January 25, Verdi paralyzed all commercial air traffic. At that time, employees of the airport company and the ground handling services went down with the security personnel. In the meantime, collective agreements have been concluded for these two groups.
Normal operation in Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn
At the airports in Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn, operations were almost normal again on Saturday after the two days of warning strikes. The online portals of both airports showed largely normal operations for departures and arrivals on Saturday morning.
In Cologne/Bonn, however, 38 of a total of 198 passenger flights planned for this Saturday had been canceled or diverted by the airlines as a result of the warning strike. Hamburg Airport was expecting an increased number of passengers for Saturday – due to rebooking and rescheduling by the airlines, there were more take-offs and landings than originally planned.
Rail traffic ran smoothly again. Traffic has also been resumed in an orderly manner in freight traffic, but it usually takes a little longer there for the backlog to be completely resolved, said a DB spokeswoman.
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