UK industrial action: What strikes are coming up?
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A German labour union has called on workers at seven of the country’s airports, including the two biggest, to go on strike Friday to press demands for inflation-busting pay increases. A series of flights have already been cancelled.
The Verdi union said Wednesday that the one-day walkout by civil aviation security and ground staff would affect the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hannover and Bremen.
Munich airport said later in the afternoon that it would suspend most passenger flights because of the walk-out — with the exception of relief flights, flights for medical, technical and other emergencies, and flights for the Munich Security Conference, which begins on Friday.
Still, the strike is likely to affect arrivals of those scheduled to come on regular flights to attend the annual conference which runs through Sunday.
More than 700 takeoffs and landings were planned in Munich, Germany’s second biggest airport, on Friday, German news agency dpa reported.
Later in the day, both Frankfurt and Hamburg airport also announced they would cancel all passenger flights Friday due to the strike.
Frankfurt is the country’s biggest airport and a major hub for intercontinental travel.
The union is demanding a pay rise of 10.5 percent to counter the effects of high inflation that their members have endured.
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German strikes come as France is also bracing for a fifth day of nationwide strikes and protests Thursday against a pension reform that is the flagship policy of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term.
This latest round is expected to be less disruptive that on previous occasions, with the Paris Metro working normally and most schools unaffected.
A railway worker walkout will severely disrupt high-speed TGV trains and regional services, however. Almost a third of flights are expected to be canceled at Paris’ second busiest airport, Orly, and traffic will be interrupted at regional airports as well.
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The proposed pension reforms have unleashed the most turbulent debate in years in the National Assembly, with uncertainty looming over the final outcome.
Tensions at parliament are fed by the unpopularity of the reform aimed at raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 and requiring people to have worked for at least 43 years to be entitled to a full pension, amid other measures.
The powerful union the CGT is also keeping one eye on March 7, when unions are calling for a rolling strike to bring France to its knees. The union hopes to rally support from trash collectors, which could see trash piling up in the French streets.
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