Lufthansa ground staff to strike on Tuesday, says union

BERLIN (Reuters) -Ground staff at German airline Lufthansa () will go on strike on Tuesday, the Verdi union said on Sunday, announcing the latest industrial action to hit Germany’s transport sector as workers demand more pay.

The strike is scheduled to start at 4 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday and finish at 7.10 a.m. (0610 GMT) on Wednesday, the union said.

The airports affected are Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Cologne and Stuttgart.

Michael Niggemann, the Lufthansa executive board member responsible for human resources, said the strike was unfortunate as the German carrier had made a “far reaching” offer during talks – which Verdi had rejected – and it would inconvenience customers and staff alike.

A similar strike caused the cancellation of 900 out of 1,000 planned flights at the start of February, affecting about 100,000 passengers.

The ground services arm is among several groups of Lufthansa workers in negotiations over collective bargaining agreements.

Verdi is demanding a wage increase of 12.5% for 25,000 ground staff workers, or at least 500 euros ($544.30) a month more over a 12-month period, plus a one-off payment of 3,000 euros to offset inflation.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has been hit with a number of nationwide strikes affecting air travel, railways and public transport.