New air traffic disturbances after German union calls 48-hour airport security workers’ strike

Ver.di, the German union is calling on aviation security employees who work in passenger screening, personnel and goods control and in service areas to go on a strike that will start next Wednesday night and ends on Friday night. The strikes are taking place at Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Cologne/Bonn airports. Longer waiting times at security checkpoints and even flight cancellations are to be expected, the union warns.

ver.di has been in negotiations with the Bundesverband der Luftsicherheitsunternehmen (BDLS or the federation of airport security companies) for years to increase the time surcharges for night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work as well as a better collective bargaining agreement for overtime pay for security and service staff at commercial airports.

“Despite the strikes, talks with the BDLS with the aim of jointly finding a solution to the conflict have not yet yielded a breakthrough. A written offer from the BDLS is insufficient and not capable of agreement, since it does not bring any improvements for work on Saturdays and Sundays, for work at night only after 10 p.m. and not after 8 p.m. surcharges and the surcharge should not be raised to 25 percent,” ver.di mentioned in a press release. 

The continuation of negotiations on April 11 and 12, 2023 did not lead to a solution and the employers did not submit an improved offer.

“The ver.di collective bargaining committee took the negotiation date after Easter as a signal from the employers to finally come to a solution and to take travel traffic into account during the Easter holidays and to refrain from strikes. But the hope of finally reaching an agreement was in vain,” said Wolfgang Pieper from the ver.di trade union. “Work at airports must become more attractive in order to be able to retain aviation security specialists and recruit new ones in order to avoid longer waiting times for holidaymakers,” Pieper continued.

“We call on the BDLS to finally present a negotiable offer in the negotiations on April 27th and 28th in order to avoid further strikes and to end the conflict before Pentecost,” Pieper concluded.