APW19980303.0665 NEWS NEWSWIRE Millions of morning commuters in Germany were delayed Tuesday when public workers walked off their jobs to pressure the government for higher wages and job security. Some 130,000 employees joined in several-hour warning strikes or demonstrations in cities throughout the country, more than twice as many as Monday, the OeTV transport union and DAG public service workers union said. This week's strikes were timed to coincide with new contract negotiations for Germany's 3.2 million public employees Tuesday evening after three rounds of failed talks this year. The unions are a 4.5 percent increase in pay and benefits, plus more job security. Representatives for federal, state and local governments say the additional cost would be 19 billion marks (dlrs 10.5 billion) annually and is out of the question. At Frankfurt international airport, 100 flights were delayed by about an hour as security personnel and luggage handlers staged short walkouts, officials said. Public transportation was crippled in Bonn, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover and the Ruhr Valley industrial heartland. Commuters mobbed taxis but many still arrived late for work. In eastern German cities, teachers, garbage collectors and police made an extra demand: equal working time and wages with those of their better-off western compatriots. While the situation has slowly improved since unification in 1990, public servants in the eastern states now work 40 hours a week and get 85 percent of what is paid to their compatriots in the western states, who work 38.5 hours a week.