Frankfurt aviation strikers thank ITF/ETF for support
March 26, 2015
The ver.di union in Germany has thanked the ITF and its European arm the ETF for their support for nearly 1,000 workers at Acciona Airport Services in Frankfurt who took strike action on 20 March.
Acciona is one of three major ground handling companies at Frankfurt Airport and pays the lowest. The workers are demanding higher wages, a bonus for working during the summer peak and improvements in the health bonus scheme. These changes would help to raise the standards to a comparable level with Acciona’s established competitors.
The federations’ solidarity message was co-signed by the Spanish trade unions organising Acciona workers, Comisiones Obreras (FSC-CCOO), Unión General de Trabajadores (SMC-UGT) and Unión Sindical Obrera (USO). It said the federations were determined to support their colleagues in their legitimate fight and would call on all their affiliates to support ver.di’s future actions at Acciona by lawful solidarity means. It described ver.di’s negotiations as part of a broader move to improve the work and pay conditions in the entire German ground handling industry to ensure that competition was not carried out solely on the backs of the workers.
In her response, ver.di national bargaining director Katharina Wesenick wrote: “Thank you so much for your very fast reaction towards our request for solidarity for this industrial action. We read your solidarity letter on the stage and everybody was very happy and excited about it. It really filled our affiliates with strength and hope!
“Our strike was very successful – nearly 90 percent of the staff stopped work for nine hours today, and the works councils and ver.di activists in Acciona’s direct competitors Fraport and its subsidiary APS showed direct solidarity. This is a huge step forwards to a national ground handling agreement.”
Read the ITF/ETF solidarity message.