Strike call: Berlin airport expects cancellation of all flights

The ground handling services, the airport company and aviation security are affected. “The strike will take place all day long at the beginning of the early shift and will end late in the evening,” Verdi said on Monday. According to the airport, it assumes that “no regular passenger flights can take place at BER”.

The reason for the strike is unsuccessful salary negotiations. Verdi demands 500 euros more per month for the employees of the ground handling services and the airport company with a term of the collective agreement of twelve months. According to Verdi, employers are primarily demanding longer contract periods from both ground handling services and the airport company.

“The strike will take place all day long at the beginning of the morning shift and will end late in the evening,” Verdi announced. The airport operator spoke of the period 3:30 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Around 300 take-offs and landings with a total of 35,000 passengers were scheduled for Wednesday.

Industry experts said that with a high level of strike participation, the airport could no longer operate and could not guarantee the necessary security.

Verdi invited to a rally on Wednesday morning and expects around 1,500 participants. The union criticized the fact that after three negotiation sessions there was still no wage agreement for ground staff. Talks are scheduled to resume on January 30th. “The positions of the two sides are far apart, especially when it comes to the term of the collective agreement.”

The German airport association ADV said the one-day warning strike was inappropriate and lacked any acceptable basis. “An entire region is to be cut off from international air traffic for a whole day,” complained ADV CEO Ralph Beisel. Tens of thousands of passengers are suffering. “Instead of having the different collective bargaining ideas settled at a common negotiating table, Germany’s capital airport is being misused as a publicity platform.”

TAP cancels strike

Cabin crew at Portuguese airline TAP called off a seven-day strike that was due to start on Wednesday. A new management proposal to improve working conditions was approved by a large majority at a general meeting of the flight attendants’ union SNPVAC in Lisbon on Monday.

The walkout threatened for the period from January 25th to 31st will not take place, SNPVAC President Ricardo Penarroias told journalists. “Both sides have made concessions,” he emphasized, as reported by the newspaper Público, among others.

TAP said before the deal the strike would result in the cancellation of 1,316 flights and affect around 156,000 passengers. The costs caused by the walkout would amount to at least 48 million euros. A two-day strike in December has already cost eight million euros.

Founded in 1945, TAP is Portugal’s largest airline and has around 6,600 employees – around 2,000 fewer than before the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The company was last in the black in 2017. In 2020 and 2021 there were record losses of 1.2 billion and 1.6 billion euros. Portugal’s left-wing government announced last year that it wanted to privatize the company again. The state had regained control of TAP in 2020.