"Let the frustration out on us": Lufthansa on the ground - passengers become violent

Created: 07/27/2022, 22:09

By: Sandra Busch

Lufthansa ground staff are on strike for more money and better working conditions.

Flights have been canceled and passengers are stuck in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt – The crowd starts chanting loudly at ten o'clock.

"We are ready for more money," say the 800 or so Lufthansa employees as they walk from the bus parking lot at Frankfurt Airport with whistles and yellow safety vests towards the Lufthansa Aviation Center on Wednesday.

There, Marvin Reschinsky from the Verdi union said at the rally: "We know how hard the burden is for you." Together, pressure should be put on Lufthansa, as reported by fnp.de, so that next week "there will finally be a result “.

Lufthansa and Verdi have already spoken in two rounds about future salaries and working conditions for around 20,000 ground workers.

The next date is August 3rd.

Verdi had called on Lufthansa ground staff to go on a one-day warning strike on Wednesday (July 27).

They stopped work at 3:45 a.m. on Wednesday.

Until Thursday 6 a.m.

"For three years we have had no holiday pay, no Christmas bonus, no bonus, no wage increase," says Hariz Muslic, who works at Lufthansa Technik.

"We want more recognition and respect." That's what his colleague Sinisa Petkovic wants too.

Above all, there are too few staff, he says.

"People are missing, there is an additional burden for each employee."

Lufthansa ground staff have stopped work and are demonstrating for more money and better working conditions at Frankfurt Airport.

© Michael Schick

Lufthansa staff on strike: staff shortage at Frankfurt Airport

That's what Lufthansa works council Christian Hirsch says.

Lufthansa cut staff during the crisis, "the reduction program was excessive, it's falling on our feet now".

Warnings were ignored by Lufthansa, "Now we're all paying the bill." There are too few staff, and none are available anymore.

"The working conditions and remuneration are no longer attractive." He calls for investment in personnel, because "without strengthened personnel, you can't get the plane into the air".

According to the operator Fraport, 725 of 1160 planned flights were canceled at Germany's largest airport on Wednesday.

This can be seen immediately by looking at the display board in the terminal: Barcelona, ​​Lisbon, Atlanta – “cancelled” is written behind every Lufthansa flight.

In Hall A of Terminal 1, the counters are deserted.

People are sitting on the ground, leaning against their luggage.

At one stand there are free drinks, chips, gummy bears, trail mix.

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It is mainly guests from abroad who are stranded who have no possibility to change trains in Frankfurt.

They queue at the only open counters: "Rebookings".

There are queues.

Rina from Canada wants to fly to Macedonia with her family.

"I only had bad communication with Lufthansa, there were only one-sentence e-mails about the flight cancellations," she says.

"If everything goes wrong, we have to go to a part of the family in Regensburg.

Then we'll see." Mads Riis from Denmark has been stuck in Frankfurt since Tuesday.

He came from Mallorca.

"We heard about the strike while on vacation and were always waiting for information from Lufthansa - now we're stuck here."

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Georgia, Petra and Dagmar feel sorry for the passengers.

Otherwise they are working on the check-in.

But on this day they demonstrate.

"We have a glaring shortage of staff," says Dagmar.

And that has an impact on service, "when there's only one where there were three before," says Georgia.

"If I'm overworked, underpaid, physically and verbally attacked, then I can no longer provide service." The guests are dissatisfied.

"And take the frustration out on us," says Petra.

"They become violent, insult us, computers have already been ripped out." That's why, says Dagmar, "some go to work with shaking knees".

At the rally, Katharina Wesenick from Verdi said that the employees “go to the limits of what is reasonable mentally and physically”.

The union demands 9.5 percent more money in the wage tables for a twelve-month term, but at least 350 euros.

"The employer's offer is outrageous." According to its own statements, Lufthansa offered a two-stage flat-rate salary increase of 250 euros for a period of 18 months, which would be accompanied by a profit-related increase of two percent from July next year.

Queues only form in front of the transfer counters.

© Michael Schick

Frankfurt Airport: Lufthansa HR Director calls warning strike "unreasonable"

Lufthansa Chief Human Resources Officer Michael Niggemann whistles at the rally.

He calls the warning strike "unreasonable and unnecessary in its breadth and length".

After all, they will sit together again next week to negotiate.

He understands the desire for respect and more salary, but "the demands and economic performance must be balanced".

Just whistle "will not be able to fix it".

Axel Gerntke from the Left parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament thinks “it is an impertinence to accuse the strikers of going on strike now”.

If employers had their way, "strike would only be appropriate on February 30".

Reschinsky also turns to Niggemann.

"As management, you are responsible for the warning strike." Making the tariff increase dependent on group earnings is out of the question.

The will is there to be finished in the next negotiation.

"But when I hear the statements from the management, I have little hope." (Sandra Busch)