The flight chaos is getting worse: On Wednesday, Lufthansa ground staff are to go on strike at all of the airline’s locations.
Air travelers have to be prepared for restrictions: the Verdi union is calling on the approximately 20,000 Lufthansa ground staff to go on a one-day warning strike. The union announced on Monday that there would be major flight cancellations and delays on Wednesday.
“All Lufthansa locations are affected,” according to Verdi’s statement, including the hubs in Frankfurt am Main, Düsseldorf and Munich. The airports where Lufthansa has a lesser presence, such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, will also be affected.
The background to the strike is the currently faltering wage negotiations between Lufthansa and Verdi. According to Verdi, the employees found the latest offer from the employer side to be insufficient. The negotiations concern the ground staff and several of the airline’s sub-companies, including Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Cargo in addition to Lufthansa AG Boden.
Warning strike lasts until Thursday morning
The warning strikes are set to begin at 3:45 a.m. Wednesday morning and end at 6 a.m. Thursday morning. In view of the length of the strike, it is to be expected that there will also be significant disruptions to air traffic afterwards.
The deputy Verdi boss, Christine Behle, who is also the negotiator in the collective bargaining dispute, asked the passengers for their understanding and pointed out the extremely problematic situation of the employees, which was “mainly caused by mismanagement”.