Airport workers to go on strike in Germany

German trade union Verdi has announced that airport workers will go on a one-day warning strike as talks with businesses to end a pay dispute fail to reach an agreement.

Verdi announced on Tuesday that it was extending the wage dispute in the public sector to airports in major cities across Germany.

Airports in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hanover, and Bremen will come to a standstill on Friday as ongoing negotiations have not produced results.

In the negotiations with the employees, the workers' representatives are asking for a 10.5-percent raise for 12 months for the approximately 2.5 million employees in the public sector of the federal and municipal governments.

However, the employers have so far rejected their request.

Workers in the European Union (EU)'s strongest economy are grappling with rampant inflation, particularly soaring energy prices. EU economies were impacted after Brussels decided to stop buying Russian oil and gas over the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, Western support for Ukraine continues even as Ukraine's allies admit being strained by increased demand for assistance.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that Ukraine was using up ammunition far faster than Western allies could provide, putting pressure on these countries.

“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles,” Stoltenberg said as NATO leaders met in Brussels to discuss providing weapons and munitions, and possibly fighter jets, to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday urged Kiev's Western supporters to speed up the pace of supplying weapons to his country, as Russia is gaining fresh ground in the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine.

ME