Tuesday March 4, 07:49 PM
Transport chaos feared in Germany as strikes worsen
FRANKFURT (AFP) - Many parts of Germany were hit Tuesday by public sector strikes, and further chaos was expected as trade unions threatened to disrupt public transport and airline traffic.
The Verdi trade union said civil servants in most of the country's 16 states heeded a call to stop work in support of demands for wage increases of up to eight percent.
It announced that on Wednesday morning workers at German airports would for the first time join the strike, prompting national carrier Lufthansa (Xetra: 823212 - news) to cancel 142 flights, most of them on domestic routes.
At Frankfurt airport, one of Europe's busiest air hubs, the strike was scheduled to begin at 5:30 am (0430 GMT). In Stuttgart, also in the southwest, the strike was due to stretch from 0300 GMT to 1130 GMT.
On Tuesday, Verdi said, some 20,000 workers in Lower Saxony and Bremen in the north stopped work in a strike that disrupted services at 40 hospitals. In Hanover, the strike was cut short to allow visitors to access the world's biggest IT fair, the CeBIT.
Administrative services, waste collection, libraries, museums and regional savings banks were affected in eastern states, including the cities of Dresden and Leipzig.
In Berlin rubbish began to pile up while workers at the BVG transport system were planning an unlimited strike starting Wednesday.
In North-Rhine Westphalia, the country's most populous state, transport strikes were due to hit Cologne and Duesseldorf, as well as hospitals and day-care centres on Wednesday with Verdi expecting 67,000 workers to take part.
Verdi is holding talks with federal and municipal officials on behalf of 1.3 million civil servants.
The powerful union has sought since mid-February to pile pressure on government officials to obtain salary increases of eight percent or a minimum of 200 euros (300 dollars) per month.
Authorities have proposed a five percent increase over two years, along with an extension of the work week from 38.5 hours to 40 hours.
Talks were scheduled Thursday in the eastern city of Potsdam.
In the meanwhile, the GDL train drivers' union threatened to resume strikes nationwide from next week in a protracted dispute with the state-owned rail provider Deutsche Bahn.
The two sides in January reached an accord to end a standoff which had led to a series of strikes, but GDL said Deutsche Bahn was now imposing a further condition prior to signing off on the deal.
GDL chief Manfred Schell said the rail provider was demanding the union sign up to a collective accord concluded with other rail unions but said the step would be "fatal" for train drivers.
The union and Deutsche Bahn agreed in January to a stand-alone wage agreement for drivers, as well as wage increases and a shorter working week.
The separate contract had been the main sticking point in the row as Deutsche Bahn feared giving in to the demand would drive a wedge between different sections of its workforce.
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