Lufthansa and pilots are fighting for a collective agreement - more strikes are imminent

Created: 06/09/2022 13:18

Lufthansa aircraft are parked at Frankfurt Airport: It could look something like this again in the next few days if the collective bargaining between the company and the union should fail.

© Boris Roessler/dpa

Are hundreds of Lufthansa flights canceled on Wednesday and Thursday?

In order to prevent the second pilots' strike, which has already been decided, the disputing parties meet to negotiate.

Time is running out.

Frankfurt/Main - Faced with the threat of a second, intensified wave of strikes, Lufthansa and the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union (VC) are making another attempt to resolve the wage conflict.

The parties met on Tuesday at Frankfurt Airport for negotiations, for which Lufthansa announced an improved offer in the morning.

During the night, VC had announced a second wave of strikes starting on Wednesday, which could only be prevented by a "serious offer" from Lufthansa.

At the Lufthansa core company, there should be a strike on Wednesday and Thursday, at Lufthansa Cargo even a day longer.

Strikes threaten hundreds of flights

Negotiations were scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

According to Lufthansa, it must decide by 12 p.m. at the latest whether flights will be canceled for the threatened strike days.

The company said this was necessary both for aircraft and crew scheduling and for at least a minimal lead time for the affected passengers.

In the event of a strike on September 7th and 8th, Lufthansa's flight operations can again be expected to have a significant impact, the airline said.

Lufthansa canceled the entire operation of the Lufthansa core company last Friday after the Cockpit Association called on its members to launch the first wave of strikes.

Around 800 flights with 130,000 affected passengers were canceled.

Lufthansa HR Director lacks “any understanding”

According to a statement, Lufthansa HR Director Michael Niggemann said there was no understanding of the renewed threat of a strike.

"The way of escalation is also wrong because we know that our pilots would rather fly than go on strike." Nevertheless, everything will be done to be successful with an improved offer, even under time pressure.

However, Niggemann demanded that VC first had to explain the tariff it had changed last Friday.

The previous demand for automatic inflation compensation was replaced by the demand for an annual wage increase of 8.2 percent from 2023 before the Munich Labor Court - in addition to an increase of 5.5 percent this year.

So far, Lufthansa has offered flat-rate increases in the basic salary of EUR 500 as of September 1, 2022 and EUR 400 as of April 1, 2023.

Depending on the previous salary, this results in increases of between 18 and 5 percent.

Lufthansa boss promises support for employees

CEO Carsten Spohr had said the previous evening that in times of high inflation, significant salary increases, especially in the lower groups, were “absolutely appropriate” and that some entry-level salaries that were once negotiated were no longer tenable.

Spohr had emphasized: "We did not leave our employees alone in the pandemic, and we will not leave them alone in inflation either."

According to Lufthansa, the combined claims of VC before the change amounted to around 900 million euros in additional costs in two years.

The personnel costs in the cockpit would increase by 40 percent, the company said.

This is beyond reasonable, even without considering the financial consequences of the Corona crisis.

It was only in July that the Verdi union almost paralyzed the flight operations of the largest German airline for a whole day with a warning strike by ground staff.

The flight attendants' union Ufo wants to negotiate for its members in the fall.