Hardly anything went at Frankfurt Airport on Friday. Street cleaning and garbage disposal in the carnival stronghold of Mainz are also affected by the ver.di warning strikes.
The warning strikes by the trade union ver.di have almost completely brought air traffic to a standstill at Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt. Instead of the planned 1,005 flight movements with around 137,000 passengers, only twelve flights took place on Friday. According to a spokesman for the operator Fraport, these were exclusively relief and emergency flights that were handled under a special agreement. These included two Lufthansa Cargo relief flights to the Turkish earthquake area.
Around 3,000 people took part in a demonstration for the union’s wage targets in front of the airport gates.
Expected flights again from Saturday morning
At a total of seven German airports, the ground and security staff and the airport fire brigade took part in a day-long walkout, making flights impossible. Due to the ban on night flights, flight operations in Frankfurt begin at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday. “We will start regular operations again immediately on Saturday,” said a spokesman.
In addition to Frankfurt, there were also no regular passenger flights in Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart on Friday; Hanover, Bremen and Dortmund were also on strike. According to the airport association, the warning strike affected a total of around 300,000 passengers. Over 2,300 flights have been cancelled.
Flight cancellations at Frankfurt Airport: What can vacationers do?
No street cleaning after heavy Thursday in Neuwied
There are also warning strikes in Rhineland-Palatinate. In Neuwied, the public utilities and service companies went on strike on Friday and will continue to do so on Saturday. This means that rubbish and dirt are left lying around after the heavy Thursday.
In Mainz, employees of the waste disposal and commercial companies, the municipal utilities and the city administration stopped work on Friday. Around 400 people were involved in the disposal operation alone, said ver.di spokesman Fabian Gödeke.
For street cleaning, the strike call also applies to Saturday. “So that everyone can see how valuable street cleaning is, especially on foolish days,” says Gödeke. An exception to this, however, is the children’s carnival in Mainz on Saturday, which employees of the waste disposal companies help to secure.
Garbage collection also failed in the Mainz-Bingen district on Friday. This was announced by the district administration.
The employees of the waste disposal and commercial companies as well as the municipal utilities and city administration in Mainz have stopped work. Some of the garbage from Fastnacht remains lying around.
Kita staff excluded from strike call for Mainz
The daycare centers were not affected by this round of warning strikes. After the Corona period, they want to “see bright children’s eyes,” the union said. However, there was one exception to the exception: the housekeeping staff in the daycare centers were still called on to go on warning strikes.
Ver.di boss threatens: “Next strikes will have a different dimension”
Ver.di boss Frank Werneke threatened before the next round of negotiations: “The next strikes will have a different dimension.” Should the employers submit a really good offer next week, an agreement can be reached quickly, Werneke said in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. Otherwise, the current warning strikes are only a foretaste.
This is what ver.di demands for its employees
Ver.di is calling for a 10.5 percent increase in salary for federal and local employees in the forthcoming collective bargaining round, but at least 500 euros more per month for a period of twelve months. The next round of collective bargaining is scheduled for February 22nd and 23rd in Potsdam.
