Air Cargo Community condemns the warning strike at the airport by ver.di

Today, the union Verdi has called for a warning strike at seven German airports. At the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Bremen, and Hanover, the work stoppage will lead to numerous flight cancellations and a massive disruption of important cargo flights. This poses sustainable risks for the air freight location of Frankfurt am Main.

(Frankfurt am Main) The effects of the warning strike are largely bringing German air traffic to a standstill. In addition to thousands of passengers who cannot take their flights, this also has massive consequences for air freight. Important, urgent goods, such as medical products, spare parts, or perishable goods, cannot be transported or can only be transported to a limited extent. Especially in the current time, humanitarian aid is urgently needed. The timing of the labor dispute poses an additional challenge for the handling and transport of aid deliveries, for example, to the earthquake areas in Turkey and Syria, and is particularly inappropriate in its scope and timing.

Completely inappropriate at this time

Felix Toepsch, Managing Director of the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt e.V., explains: “A work stoppage of this magnitude brings large parts of air traffic in Germany to a temporary standstill. This far exceeds a warning strike and is completely disproportionate at this time. Just on Wednesday, there were massive restrictions at Frankfurt Airport due to IT disruptions affecting the transport of important goods, including medical products and urgently needed aid supplies for Turkey and Syria. Nevertheless, the union insists on the strike call. Air traffic is still in a challenging market and competitive situation after several crisis years. Such an additional burden harms air freight in general and the Frankfurt location as the largest European air freight hub sustainably. We therefore demand moderation in the collective bargaining disputes and consideration of economic and social interactions.”

Photo: © Fraport / Caption: This is not how it looked at Frankfurt Airport on Friday. Due to a strike by ver.di, all flights were completely canceled on that day.