Ground staff at German airline Lufthansa will strike on Wednesday, the Verdi union said today, in the latest strike to hit Germany’s transport sector as workers demand pay rises.

The strike is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 04:00 local time (05:00 Greek time) and last until 07:10 local time (08:10 Greek time) on Thursday “to increase pressure” on management, the union said in its statement.

The mobilization is expected to affect the airports of Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Dusseldorf.

A Lufthansa spokesman said it was still too early to say how many flights would be canceled as the airline was putting together a contingency schedule. considering the 3,000 daily flights which the strike may potentially have an impact on.

“Of course there will be many,” he noted.

Ground handling is one of several Lufthansa divisions currently negotiating collective labor agreements.

In ground staff contract negotiations, Verdi is asking for a 12.5% ​​pay rise for 25,000 workers, or at least €500 more per month for a period of 12 months, plus a one-off payment of €3,000 to compensate for inflation.

The union argues that the demand for a pay rise is based on the higher cost of living and the heavy workload due to staff shortages.

Lufthansa’s ground staff went on strike in July 2022 during the latest round of collective bargaining negotiations, causing major disruption to air travel.

Since then, Europe’s largest economy has been hit by a number of nationwide strikes that have affected air and rail travel as well as public transport.