Strikes hit German airports amid public workers’ pay dispute

Nearly all flights at Germany’s Cologne-Bonn airport and the majority at nearby Dusseldorf have been cancelled or diverted on Monday as a result of strikes.

The industrial action also affected local transportation, day-care facilities and local administration in Germany’s most populous region.

Cologne-Bonn airport said that all but two of the day’s 136 planned flights would not depart from or arrive there, German news agency dpa reported.

In Dusseldorf, only 89 of the planned 330 flights were expected to take place as scheduled, with most of the rest being cancelled.

The one-day “warning strike” by airport security staff comes amid pay talks for employees of Germany’s federal and municipal governments and for airport security staff.

Walkouts planned on Monday were also set to affect buses and trams in parts of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as day-care centres for children and other services.

Unions are seeking a 10.5% pay raise, while employers so far have offered an increase totalling 5% in two stages and one-time payments of 2,500 euro (around £2,200) per employee – which unions have rejected as insufficient.