More than 100,000 Lufthansa customers will have to prepare again for flight cancellations and delays on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Verdi trade union is once again calling on ground staff to strike in the current collective labor agreement negotiation round. The union announced on Sunday that employees must stop working from 4 a.m. Tuesday to 7:10 a.m. Wednesday. The affected airports 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”.
More than 100,000 passengers affected
Lufthansa says it is working on a special flight plan. But “more than 100,000 passengers were affected again,” 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,” said Michael Niggemann, Director of Human Resources at Lufthansa. “Our goal remains a quick agreement, and that can only be achieved at the negotiating table.”
Collective bargaining will continue on Wednesday. Lufthansa submitted a new offer last week. According to the airline, it provides a salary increase of at least 10 percent within twelve months and a “timely payment” of tax-free inflation compensation bonuses totaling 3,000 euros. The term of the collective labor agreement must be 25 months.
12.5 percent more salary needed
Verdi demands a 12.5 percent increase in salary and a minimum of 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months for the 25,000 Lufthansa employees on site. Verdi also demands a premium of 3,000 euros to compensate for inflation. “The ground workers feel insulted again,” Reschinsky explained about Lufthansa’s current offer.
During the warning strike, meetings are planned at the airports of Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, Verdi also announced. A 27-hour strike in early February largely paralyzed flight operations at Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. According to Lufthansa, around 900 of the 1,000 scheduled flights were cancelled, affecting around 100,000 passengers.
Discover Airlines pilots are also on strike
Meanwhile, a three-day strike by pilots at Lufthansa’s holiday airline Discover Airlines, called by the Cockpit Association (VC), will continue until Monday evening.
According to the company, eight of the airline’s 19 flights, which depart from Frankfurt and Munich, will be canceled on Sunday. The passengers will be rebooked on flights operated by other Lufthansa airlines. On Saturday, a third of Discover flights failed to take off as planned. The VC wants to enforce the conclusion of collective labor agreements for the first time at the young airline, which has about 400 cockpit employees in a fleet of 24 aircraft.
The airline recently signed a contract with the works council, which according to the VC corresponds to the collective labor agreement that is almost ready to be concluded. However, the union insists on a collective labor agreement for which, unlike the company agreement, strikes are possible. The airline agreed to continue collective bargaining negotiations. The VC called on flight crews from parent company Lufthansa to stage a solidarity strike for Discover employees on Monday morning. This concerns four long-distance flights with the Boeing 787.
Source: Krone
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