What’s Wrong with German Airports?

By: Norhan Mahmoud 

CAIRO, Jan. 15 (SEE)- Newsfeeds stormed today with stories on flight cancellations and workers queuing up across German airports, but why is this chaos sweeping Berlin and its neighboring cities?!

Its all due to security workers objecting over a pay row, so as to pressure officials to respond to their demands. Thus, airports operations were paralyzed affecting almost 220,000 passengers at Munich, Bremen, Hamburg and others. 

Walkouts were called upon by the Ver.di Union, as per the Associated Press (AP), urging workers to strike between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. local time. 

“We hope that the employers will finally be responsive to our demands,” Ver.di’s Benjamin Roscher in Frankfurt told the German news agency dpa, as per the AP.

Meanwhile, Ver.di is parleying to increase the hourly rates to 20 euros on behalf of 23,000 security personnel- which is almost a 30% rise, as they earn between 11.30 and 17.16 euros.

The good news for passengers is that Lufthansa Airline announced free flight bookings until January 20 for impacted travelers.

Hundreds of flights were also halted last week nationwide due to strikes.