More than 100,000 Lufthansa customers will have to prepare for flight cancellations and delays again on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Verdi union is once again calling on ground staff to strike in the current collective bargaining round. The union announced on Sunday that employees should stop work from Tuesday at 4 a.m. to Wednesday at 7:10 a.m. The airports affected are Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart.
Reason for the work stoppage: Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky described Lufthansa’s current offer as “crazy anti-social”.
Lufthansa says it is working on a special flight plan. However, “over 100,000 passengers were again affected,” the airline said. “This is not the way to fulfill our shared responsibility for our employees, for our guests, for a strong and reliable Lufthansa,” explained Lufthansa Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann. “Our goal remains a quick agreement, and that can only be achieved at the negotiating table.”
Collective bargaining is scheduled to continue on Wednesday. Lufthansa submitted a new offer last week. According to the airline, it provides for at least a 10 percent salary increase within twelve months and a “timely payment” of tax-free inflation compensation bonuses totaling 3,000 euros. The term of the collective agreement should be 25 months. Verdi is demanding 12.5 percent more salary and at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months for the 25,000 Lufthansa employees on the ground. Verdi is also demanding a premium of 3,000 euros to compensate for inflation. “The ground workers once again feel offended,” explained Reschinsky about the current Lufthansa offer.
Rallies are planned at Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg airports during the warning strike, Verdi also announced. A 27-hour strike at the beginning of February largely paralyzed flight operations at the Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Around 900 of 1,000 planned flights were canceled, affecting around 100,000 passengers, according to Lufthansa.
Meanwhile, a three-day strike by pilots at Lufthansa’s holiday airline Discover Airlines, called for by the Cockpit Association (VC), is running until Monday evening. According to the company, eight of 19 flights for the airline, which departs from Frankfurt and Munich, will be canceled on Sunday. The passengers will be rebooked on flights of other Lufthansa airlines. On Saturday, a third of Discover flights were unable to take off as planned. The VC wants to enforce the conclusion of collective agreements for the first time at the still young airline, which has around 400 cockpit employees in a fleet of 24 aircraft.
The airline recently concluded a contract with the works council, which, according to the VC, corresponds to the collective remuneration agreement that is almost ready to be concluded. However, the union is pushing for a collective agreement for which, unlike the company agreement, strikes can be made. The airline agreed to further collective bargaining negotiations. The VC called on cockpit staff from the parent company Lufthansa to go on a solidarity strike for Discover employees on Monday morning. This affects four long-haul flights with the Boeing 787.
2024-02-18 13:35:04