Traveler beware: Your long-awaited German getaway may be in jeopardy due to a massive transportation strike.

Thousands of airport workers, hoping to win higher pay for public service employees, went on strike at several German flughafen, leading to a number of cancelled flights yesterday.

More than 22,000 baggage handlers, check-in counter workers, airport firefighters and ground crew workers joined the strike at Frankfurt International Airport—Germany’s largest airport and a major European hub.

“Either the public employers make an offer with clear salary increases and without increased work hours, or we will show them our strength,” said ver.di union representative Frank Bsirske.

Ver.di has requested an 8-percent raise, backdated to January 1, 2008 for 1.3 million public service workers. The government countered the request with a 5-percent increase spanning two years, plus a longer working week, but ver.di rejected the offer.

The Independent (UK) reported that the airline workers’ strike was followed by thousands of public sector workers in Berlin, which halted underground, tram and bus services throughout Berlin.

Beginning during a snowstorm, the strike caused traffic chaos in the city. Transport workers are requesting a 12-percent increase and the Berlin strike is scheduled to last for 10 days. On Tuesday dustmen, water works employees, canal and waterway staff, and school employees walked off the job for several hours. The train driver’s union, GDL, plans to begin striking on Monday.

Though German strikes are relatively rare (just ask the French), unions have grown feisty with the widespread belief that profits earned from the recent economic boom are not being equally shared.

The current strike may be scheduled to last just 10 days, but the posturing of both sides suggests that future strikes are not out of the question.

Related Links: The Washington Post, The Independent (UK)

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