Airport ground staff strike

Ground control workers at Germany's busiest airport are again set to walk off the job to back up their demands for higher wages and improved working conditions.

Late on Saturday, the GdF trade union announced that it would take its members off the job beginning at 9 p.m. local time on Sunday. The latest work stoppage is to run until early on Thursday morning. The announcement came a day after the union and Fraport, the company that operates Frankfurt airport, broke off talks that had followed five days of warning strikes.

Germany's flag carrier, Lufthansa, which has been hardest hit by the strikes, has canceled 70 flights scheduled for Monday within Germany or to European destinations. Long haul flights are to be given priority. Information about which flights are affected has been posted on the airline's website.

Wage dispute

GdF explained the decision to call more warning strikes by saying that management's latest wage offer was well below a compromise suggested by an independent mediator. It also complained that about 100 workers who drive the “follow me” vehicles that lead jets to and from their parking spots had been written out of the proposed new contract.

"This entire group of employees was written out of the wage contract, wiped off the map, so to speak," said GdF spokesman Markus Siebers.

Fraport rejects the claim, saying the affected workers would be covered in a larger wage agreement. It also dismissed the union's wage demands as unreasonable, saying the offer on the table would make the approximately 200 ground control workers better paid than counterparts performing similar functions in Frankfurt or at other German airports.

As was the case during the previous warning strikes, Fraport plans to keep the majority of scheduled flights in the air by using non-unionized replacement workers.

pfd/ng (dpa, Reuters)