According to a statement made by Lufthansa, ground handling employees went on strike for 27 hours starting at 04.00 today, as per the decision taken on February 18, following the failure to reach an agreement on wages.
The airline also canceled hundreds of flights due to the strike.
While the cancellations affected more than 100,000 passengers, the company was only able to operate 10-20 percent of scheduled flights at Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Cologne and Stuttgart airports in Germany.
The German carrier also warned that flight cancelations and delays may continue due to the ground handling staff strike.
The work stoppage by Lufthansa’s ground handling employees will continue until 07.10 tomorrow.
What do ground handlers demand from Lufthansa?
For the second time this month, the United Service Sector Union (Verdi) called for a strike for ground handling workers at Lufthansa, one of Europe’s largest airlines, after talks on “wage improvements” failed.
With this strike action, Verdi is aiming for an arrangement to improve the wages paid to Lufthansa’s ground handling employees.
The union is demanding a 12.5 percent wage increase for ground handling staff, with a minimum of 500 euros. In addition, it also wants a one-time bonus of 3,000 euros to compensate for high inflation.
Ground handling staff at Lufthansa had previously gone on a warning strike on February 7, canceling around 900 of the airline’s 1000 flights and affecting around 100,000 passengers.
