Union Calls for Ground Handlers to Strike at Düsseldorf Airport
Düsseldorf — Passengers at Düsseldorf Airport should expect cancellations and delays on Friday, as the trade union Verdi has called for a one-day work stoppage of baggage and aircraft handlers.
This would be the second major strike at a German airport in as many days. A walkout by ground services and aviation security at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport on Wednesday brought traffic to a standstill.
In Düsseldorf, the union wants employees of Aviapartner, which deals with ground handling, to stop working from the early hours of Friday morning until around 24 hours later.
More than half the flights at the largest airport in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, could be cancelled due to the industrial action, Verdi said. This is because Aviapartner handles 75% of the ground traffic at the Düsseldorf airport.
The union wants workers to walk out because 700 jobs are at risk. These are positions at Aviapartner, whose contract was not renewed in favour of other companies that are offering lower wages and benefits. Aviapartner refused to accept a buyout plan, including severance pay, for employees threatened with job loss.
The union said Aviapartner employees, despite their experience, would not automatically get jobs at these other firms but would have to reapply and agree to insecure, partially temporary job offers with significantly lower pay.
Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky said he hoped passengers would understand the strike action in light of what handling workers are facing.
"All parties involved are called upon to find a joint solution so that the airport and above all the travellers are spared days and weeks of strikes."
The union's action met with sharp criticism from the airport association ADV.
"Obviously, Verdi has discovered German airports as a media-effective stage for strike actions. It is irresponsible for the second major airport in Germany to be subjected to an all-day strike within a week," complained ADV CEO Ralph Beisel.
Tens of thousands of passengers would be the ones to suffer, he said.
"When an entire region is cut off from international air traffic, this no longer has anything to do with a warning strike," Beisel said. He appealed to the bargaining partners to seek an appropriate settlement at the negotiating table.
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