PARIS — For 18 years, Marie Marivel has worked as a security agent at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, screening throngs of passengers and thousands of bags each day. It has always been a taxing job, she says, but conditions have lately made it downright impossible, as staffing shortages nearly double her workload and a cost-of-living crisis plunders her modest paycheck.
As security agents, ground crews, baggage handlers and other airport workers in Paris begin a series of strikes on Friday to demand better wages and more hiring, Ms. Marivel, 56, is eager to join the fight.
The end of pandemic restrictions across Europe touched off a huge revival in air travel, said Ms. Marivel. “But we are flagrantly understaffed. And we can no longer make ends meet,” she said. “Workers are demanding more.”
Europe is bracing for a summer of labor unrest as soaring inflation and labor shortages incite protests across the economy, in sectors as varied as the steel industry and garbage collection. The strife is most visible in transport, where overstretched work forces at airlines, airports and railways have begun unleashing crippling walkouts. A rail strike in Britain last week was the largest in the country in 30 years.
Several walkouts are planned for this weekend and beyond. Security employees at Hamburg Airport in Germany are expected to conduct a daylong strike on Friday, demanding better wages. Pilots of the Scandinavian airline SAS are threatening to strike on Saturday as unions negotiate with the company for higher pay. The check-in staff of British Airways will walk off the job later this month, agitating for better conditions at Heathrow Airport.
Late Friday, French news reports said the country’s civil aviation authority had announced that one in five flights at Charles de Gaulle Airport would be canceled on Saturday because of continuing strike action.
The start of Europe’s summer travel season had already been marred by chaos at airports, train stations and major tourist destinations as industry operators struggled to meet a resurgence in demand. Thousands of flights have been canceled and thousands more are being cut through August by airlines such as Lufthansa and easyJet as companies scramble to find staff or face job walk-offs.
In Germany, the aviation hiring squeeze has become so dire that the government will fast-track thousands of foreign workers, mainly from Turkey, in the coming weeks to relieve staff shortages in security, check-in and…
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