Rail and airport workers in Germany are walking off the job in a new round of strikes. Employees are demanding a pay rise to be able to manage the rising cost of living. Hundreds of thousands of passengers are facing delays and cancellations at train stations and airports across the country. Airports in Frankfurt, Germany's busiest and Hamburg are cancelling departure flights.

Berlin Central Train Station

Rail and airport workers across Germany have initiated a nationwide strike. The strike action has been called due to demands for higher wages, with employees highlighting the need for a pay increase to cope with the growing cost of living.

As a result of the strike, major disruptions are being experienced by passengers, with hundreds of thousands affected by delays and cancellations at train stations and airports. Notably, significant operational disturbances are taking place at key transportation hubs, including Germany's busiest airport in Frankfurt, as well as in Hamburg, where departure flights are being canceled.



Transport workers stage nationwide strike in Germany

This is Berlin's central station. Normally, dozens of trains would come through here every hour, but this Thursday, very few are, due to industrial action by the train drivers union. And while some passengers sympathise with the strikers, others are less understanding. It's really stressful and you have to constantly try to work out whether you're going to be able to travel or not. And I see on the board a lot of trains aren't even running. Strikes are getting far more common. I can't understand why they can't sit down around a table and find a solution. Cancellations and travel disruption have hit the main airports too, as here in Frankfurt, where ground staff of the airline Lufthansa are on strike, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. But the transport sector is not the only one affected by strike action. In recent months, many other industries have seen similar protests. We are not striking for no reason. The demands are always very important things. Shortening of work hours and also more pay to make up for inflation. In many cases, the companies are unsympathetic to these demands, decisions which have added to the sense of a winter of discontent in Germany. We are seeing more strikes of relatively small but systemically important unions like the train drivers or airport personnel. And they have a lot of negotiating power. Companies are reluctant to give in to that. But because they have so much power, I'm afraid they will use it. So we'll see more strikes. All of which means that people using Germany's airports and its railway stations like this one are going to have to get used to sites like this, with fewer trains and fewer planes on those days of strike action. Dominic Cain, Al Jazeera, Berlin.

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