Berlin:
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled after public-sector workers walked off the jobs at airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Duesseldorf and several other German cities in a strike for higher wages.
Germany's largest airline Lufthansa alone said it was cancelling 600 flights today, from primarily within Europe, as a result of the strike.
The Ver.di union says it is holding the one-day warning strike to pressure employers ahead of a third round of negotiations for some 2.1 million federal and municipal employees.
The union is pushing for a one-off payment and a 3.5 percent wage increase and says they have not yet received a counteroffer.
Ver.di says the strikes, also at Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart and Hannover airports, affect ground services, service, maintenance and other workers.