Fraport granted injunction
February 29, 2012
A Frankfurt labor court has imposed a temporary injunction on warning strikes by ground staff at Germany's busiest airport.
Presiding judge Matthias Kreutzberg-Kowalczyk said he had granted the injunction application filed by the company that operates Frankfurt Airport, Fraport. The ruling means that ground-control staff, who walked off the job on Sunday evening and had been planning to stay on strike until 5 a. m. on Thursday morning must return to work.
The ruling is a second legal setback for the GdF union, which represents the 190 stiking ground-control workers, after a court ruling on Tuesday, which banned it from calling air-traffic controllers off the job in solidarity with the apron staff.
Long-standing dispute
The ground-control workers have held several days of warning strikes over the past two weeks, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of mainly inner-German and European flights. Fraport has kept the majority of flights in the air by using non-unionized replacement workers.
The union is seeking significant wage increases and improved working conditions for its members. Fraport rejects their demand, claiming the union's proposed compensation package would amount to pay rises of up to 70 percent.
The labor dispute has been brewing for a number of months. The union decided to take its workers out on strike after Fraport rejected a compromise deal proposed by a neutral mediator.
pfd/ipj (Reuters, AFP, dpa)