Employers' association BDA wants to limit the right to strike

After strikes at seven German airports last week caused numerous cancellations and delays, the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) is pushing for stricter legal regulations for labor disputes. "This walkout makes it clear once again: our labor dispute law is becoming increasingly unpredictable," said BDA general manager Steffen Kampeter to the editorial network Germany (RND).

“Legal regulations for industrial action are therefore overdue. A law that makes it clear that labor disputes should remain the exception can also help to strengthen collective bargaining,” Kampeter continued. A strike that brings air traffic to a standstill in Germany is no longer a warning strike. "Airlines and passengers were taken hostage for excessive strike targets," the BDA general manager continued. It is precisely in this geopolitically and economically complicated situation that the balance must be maintained.

A strike by the Verdi union on Friday brought air traffic to a large-scale standstill in Germany. According to the operators and the union, practically all passenger and cargo flights were canceled at the Frankfurt/Main and Munich hubs and at five other major airports. According to the airport association, more than 2,400 flights with almost 300,000 passengers were affected.

Practically all commercial air traffic was paralyzed at the two largest German airports in Frankfurt and Munich. "Frankfurt is standing still," said a Verdi spokesman on Friday in the Hessian metropolis. According to a spokesman for the airport operator Fraport, twelve flight movements were planned for Friday instead of the usual 1,000 flights.

Against this background, the CDU SME Union had already made a similar demand. Work stoppages in the area of ​​critical infrastructure should therefore be made considerably more difficult. A decision paper states that the right to strike must not be abused to “apply disproportionate pressure in the early stages of collective bargaining and cause serious damage by involving critical infrastructure”.

The MIT therefore demands that strikes in air, rail and shipping facilities as well as in the emergency services and energy and water supply are only possible after a "binding arbitration procedure has been concluded". All such work stoppages would also have to be “announced at least four days in advance”. A “basic supply” must also be maintained at airports, train stations and similar facilities.