Security staff strike paralyzes Hamburg airport

Out of some 20 security gates, only one remained open.
"A majority of passengers are not able to pass through the checkpoint on time," said the airport statement.
The strike is expected to last all day.
A total of 176 flights were scheduled to depart from Hamburg on Friday. Approximately 19,000 passengers were expected to be affected by the strike.
"The failure of security checks because of a strike is virtually identical to a closure of the airport," said Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport, adding that the airport alone would suffer a sales loss of hundreds of thousands of euros.
Security checks at the airport is the responsibility of the federal police. The personnel at the passenger security checkpoints at Hamburg Airport are employed by a private security firm which operates the security checkpoints on their behalf.
The strike was organized by Verdi labor union to lobby their employer to increase hourly wages from 11.80 euros to 14.50 euros (about 19.34 U.S. dollars).