Airports in Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf Federal Ministry of the Interior under fire after chaos at NRW airports
Cologne/Bonn/Düsseldorf · Federal police union, CDA and Verdi accuse the Federal Ministry of the Interior of inaction with regard to the massive problems with security checks at NRW airports. Verdi wants to increase the pressure and no longer rules out vigils.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior is coming under increasing pressure because of the continuing chaos at the security checks at Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn airports. The Christian Democratic Workers' Union (CDA) has accused Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) of inaction in the face of the disaster. The massive problems are the result of a failed federal personnel policy, said CDA Federal Vice President and North Rhine-Westphalian MEP Dennis Radtke. "It is high time for the Federal Minister of the Interior to exercise her office and live up to her responsibility - for the benefit of the employees and the passengers," said Radtke. "If no remedy can be found in the short term by hiring additional external employees, Faeser must consider using federal civil servants," said the CDA federal vice-chairman.
According to experts, passengers at the airports in Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn will continue to face long waiting times in front of security checks in the coming weeks. The airport and the service union Verdi see the reason for this in the staff shortage at the responsible private security company. They criticise that there is a shortage of up to 100 screeners per shift. According to the German Federal Police Union (DPolG), the already tense situation will worsen until the start of the holidays in four weeks.
The German Federal Police Union had already drawn the attention of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to the problem in March. This ministry is responsible for the content of the framework agreements with the private security companies at the airports. But according to its own information, it did not receive a reply. Now Verdi also says that it has drawn the attention of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to the plight of the checkpoints - and that was already last summer. "We have reported this to the Federal Ministry of the Interior several times. And also very insistently. But we have not received any reaction either," said Verdi secretary Özay Tarim, who has been campaigning for the interests of the inspectors for years. An enquiry from our editorial staff to the Federal Ministry of the Interior on the subject also remained unanswered.
Verdi does not rule out protest actions because of the staff shortage. "I can well imagine holding repeated vigils at the airport to draw the public's attention to the plight," says Tarim. So-called overload notices from staff are also possible, he said. "The lack of staff – at peak times up to 100 security personnel are missing – means that the people who are there are overburdened and may no longer be able to carry out their duties to the extent they should," Tarim said.
Original text:Christian Schwerdtfeger
Translation: Jean Lennox
