Lufthansa passengers will once again have to prepare for hundreds of flight cancellations at several German airports this week.
The Verdi union has called on Lufthansa ground staff to go on a warning strike at the Frankfurt/Main, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart locations on Tuesday morning. According to Lufthansa, the warning strike planned until Wednesday morning will affect more than 100,000 passengers. The company said on Sunday that it is currently working on a special flight plan that will be published soon.
The strike should begin on Tuesday at 4 a.m. and end on Wednesday at 7:10 a.m., Verdi announced in Berlin. Since all ground workers from maintenance to passenger and aircraft handling are being called on a warning strike, major flight cancellations and delays are expected to occur. According to Verdi, different times apply to areas that are not “passenger-related” such as freight or technology.
According to Lufthansa, the 35-hour warning strike is scheduled to begin on Monday evening from 8 p.m. in the cargo and technology sectors, among others. Just over a week and a half ago, Verdi called on ground staff to go on a 27-hour warning strike – as a result, 900 flights were canceled. That was around 90 percent of all flights.
The background is the group-wide collective wage negotiations for, according to Verdi, around 25,000 employees on the ground – including at Deutsche Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services, Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services and other group companies. Lufthansa speaks of around 20,000 employees.
Lufthansa criticized the warning strike, which is now being announced despite a significantly improved offer and agreed meeting times. Human resources director Michael Niggemann said that the further warning strike would once again place a disproportionate burden on both passengers and employees. “This is not the way to fulfill our shared responsibility for our employees, for our guests, for a strong and reliable Lufthansa.” The strike is particularly bitter because the next round of negotiations will take place on Wednesday and Lufthansa has presented a far-reaching offer.
The three-day pilots’ strike at the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover will only end this Monday at midnight (11:59 p.m.). The strike by the Cockpit Association (VC) led to flight cancellations in Frankfurt and Munich at the weekend. This Monday, the company again hopes to be able to offer two-thirds of all Discover flights. If flights were canceled, the group wanted to either use jets from other group companies or rebook the affected passengers.
On Monday morning, the VC union also called on pilots from the parent company Lufthansa to go on a solidarity strike for their Discover colleagues. Only Boeing 787 aircraft, of which Lufthansa currently only owns five, will be on strike over a period of four hours. According to the airline, four departures are potentially affected during the planned strike period. However, they are confident that these departures will take place as planned. Other aircraft types are not affected.
Regarding the collective bargaining dispute among ground staff, Verdi announced that no agreement had been reached in the third round of negotiations. The employers’ offer was rejected by the vast majority of employees. Criticism is therefore given to the further extended zero months from eight to eleven zero months, as well as the significantly lower increases for ground workers compared to other professional groups in the group, the length of the term and “completely unanswered issues”. The group is also not yet prepared to give employees back part of their lost income from the corona pandemic in times of record profits.
Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky said that “the ground workers once again feel insulted.” While the group gives its pilots with annual basic incomes of up to 270,000 euros high double-digit pay increases, the ground workers with starting hourly wages of sometimes 13 euros are not even expected to be compensated for the price increases of the last few years. “This is blatantly anti-social.” Management should have come to their senses after the last warning strike at the latest. But Lufthansa was not prepared to negotiate more than their only offer. In addition to Verdi’s demand for 12.5 percent more salary, but at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months, an additional inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros is also required.
Lufthansa emphasized that it had presented a “significantly improved offer that is based on the degree Verdi achieved in the public service.” It provides for at least a 10 percent salary increase in 12 months as well as a “timely payment” of tax-free inflation compensation bonuses totaling 3,000 euros. In the past 18 months, salaries for the approximately 20,000 ground workers have increased by an average of 11.5 percent.
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BERLIN (dpa-AFX)
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