The service provider Wisag, which among other things takes over the check-in for some airlines, is on strike by Verdi on Wednesday.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt If you want to start your Christmas vacation this Wednesday at Frankfurt Airport, you have to expect flight cancellations. The service union Verdi calls on around 600 employees of the ground handling service provider Wisag to take part in labor disputes. They should last from Wednesday morning, 4.30 a.m., until shortly before midnight.
Since Wisag is only one of several service providers for baggage management or check-in at the counter, this should not lead to chaotic situations at the largest German hub. Wisag represents around 15 percent of the workload on the ground at the airport.
However, some flights will be canceled. In October the union had already called for labor disputes at Wisag. At that time, a little less than 50 flights were canceled. In total there were almost 1000 flights in Frankfurt that day.
The background to the work stoppages is the wage dispute that has been going on for months between Verdi and the management of Wisag Aviation. According to Wisag, Verdi is demanding a wage increase of around eleven percent for the coming year – an unrealistic demand in Wisag’s eyes.
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The entire aviation industry has been going through an unprecedented crisis for two years, said Wisag negotiator Michael Richter. All companies in the industry would be in the red. “In such a situation, trying to push through double-digit wage demands with a crowbar on the backs of the Christmas vacationers is irresponsible and excessive,” said Richter.
Wisag offers 18 percent over three years
Richter referred to the improved offer that had been presented to Verdi last week. “The wage increases of 18 percent offered by us over the next three years mean an enormous feat of strength for our company in view of the existing uncertainty and the current figures.” More could not be achieved without endangering the jobs themselves.
Mathias Venema, negotiator for Verdi, makes a different calculation. The Wisag employees at Frankfurt Airport have not received a wage increase since 2019. The increase of 18 percent is therefore not spread over three but over five years. “The employees do the same calculation, and then we end up with less than four percent increase per year,” said Venema.
The ground staff worked hard last summer to make significantly more flights possible. At the same time, it did not receive a corona bonus. “From our point of view, that would have been a much more elegant solution, but Wisag refused such a bonus.”
In the background of the collective bargaining dispute, a much more fundamental issue is likely to play a role. During the crisis, many employees on the ground turned their backs on the industry. Some of them were released. Wisag also parted with a good 200 employees. Some of them quit of their own accord because they no longer saw any prospects in their job at the airport.
That put both Wisag and Verdi in a difficult situation. Verdi has lost members. Some of the dismissed Wisag employees felt so abandoned by the union that they demonstrated in front of the Verdi headquarters in Frankfurt a few months ago. Others have switched to the relatively new IGL aviation union, which is not yet recognized as a collective bargaining partner. So Verdi has to recruit new members.
Difficult search for staff
Wisag, in turn, has to recruit new staff and, like all ground service providers, has a hard time with it. By the summer of 2022 at the latest, almost as much will be flown as before the pandemic, time is of the essence. But the job on the apron at the ramp is tough and, in the eyes of the union representatives, far too poorly paid to be halfway attractive.
Michael C. Wisser, CEO of Wisag Aviation Service Holding, does not want to leave this picture as it is: An average employee in Germany earns 37,000 euros gross and 25,000 euros net a year. A loader at Wisag comes to 33,200 euros gross and including time strokes to 25,900 euros net. A so-called loading group leader earns as much as 43,000 euros gross and 33,200 euros net. “The job as a ground handling service provider is not a precarious job. I strongly oppose this representation, ”Wisser told the Handelsblatt.
Even before the crisis, there was tough price competition among ground handling services. In some cases, the providers applied for orders with dumping prices. This in turn led to very different collective agreements in the federal states and at the individual airports. Verdi has therefore long wanted to enforce an industry collective agreement in order to standardize the collective bargaining system and to improve the working conditions of the ground service providers nationwide.
Wisser supports this suggestion: “The industry collective agreement, as Verdi is aiming for, can help. Because it ensures a certain level of competition on the personnel cost side. ”But the union must not lose its sense of proportion.
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