Airport strike in Germany - rail strike threatened

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From: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/worl...y-Strikes.html

Airport Workers Go on Strike in Germany

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 5, 2008
Filed at 5:39 a.m. ET

BERLIN (AP) -- Scores of flights were canceled Wednesday after thousands of airport workers walked off their jobs at several German airports, part of a wider labor action to win higher pay for public service workers.

At Frankfurt International Airport -- Germany's largest and Europe's third-busiest -- more than 2,000 baggage handlers, check-in counter workers, airport firefighters and ground crew workers joined the strike, said ver.di union representative Frank Bsirske.

''Either the public employers make an offer with clear salary increases and without increased work hours, or we will show them our strength,'' Bsirske said at a rally at the airport.

Ver.di has called for an 8-percent raise for Germany's 1.3 million public service workers, backdated to Jan. 1.

The government has countered with a 5 percent increase over two years, accompanied by a longer working week -- an offer ver.di rejected.

The employers signaled a willingness to negotiate Wednesday. ''We seek a compromise,'' said Thomas Boehle, president of the employers' organization.

In Berlin -- where subway, tram and bus workers launched a 10-day strike Wednesday -- ver.di wants pay increases of up to 12 percent.

''We can hold out for a very, very long time,'' Berlin ver.di representative Frank Baesler warned on RBB radio.

The pay disputes come amid concern in Germany over perceptions that wealth from the country's recent economic upswing is being distributed unfairly.

Over recent weeks, companies including automaker BMW AG and mobile phone manufacturer Nokia Corp. have announced job cuts despite healthy earnings.

At Germany's second biggest airport, in Munich, 100 of 462 planned flights for Wednesday morning were canceled, spokesman Peter Pruemm said. Another 69 flights were canceled in Hamburg.

In all, Lufthansa said it called off 142 flights countrywide because of the strikes, which also affected airports in Duesseldorf, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Saarbruecken, Cologne-Bonn, Dortmund and Muenster-Osnabrueck. Transcontinental flights were not affected, Lufthansa said.

The public service strikes started Tuesday, halting public transport for several hours in Hanover.

In a separate dispute, GDL, the union representing train drivers, has threatened a rail strike next week unless national railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG signs off on a wage agreement by Friday.