24-hour strike
Pilots are on strike at Eurowings
10/04/2022, 7:11 p.m
The pilots of the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings complain about the high stress. In almost a dozen rounds of negotiations with the airline, there was no agreement, the pilots’ union said. Now the work is to rest for a day. The airline sees its existence threatened by the demands.
The pilots’ union VC has announced a 24-hour strike at the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings for Thursday. The labor dispute at the low-cost airline lasted from 00:00 to 23:59, said the Cockpit Association (VC). At first it was not known how many flights were affected by the strike. A spokesman said the flight operations of Eurowings Germany would be on strike, but not those of Eurowings Europe.
The negotiations on the collective bargaining agreement at Eurowings had failed, it was said. Ten rounds of talks would not have led to any significant rapprochement. The central requirement of the VC is the relief of the employees, for example by reducing the maximum flight duty times and increasing the rest periods. There have been no adjustments since 2015.
The workload has increased significantly, the union said. “The employer regularly exhausts the working time of the colleagues up to the permissible maximum, that can’t be a permanent situation.” We regret the restrictions on passengers. However, due to the lack of accommodation on the part of the management, the only option left at the moment is to enforce the demands with a labor dispute.
“We are open to talks about how we can achieve reasonable working hours for Eurowings employees in the long term,” said Marcel Gröls, Chairman of the Cockpit Association. So far, however, it has not been possible to agree on a common path with the employer. “It’s not enough to sit at the negotiating table – you also have to be willing to find a solution and not present counter-demands as an offer.”
Eurowings personnel manager Kai Duve said that despite two salary increases of well over ten percent in the next four months, the union is demanding 14 additional days off a year and a reduction in the maximum weekly working time by five hours. “In times when millions of people are afraid of a cold winter and the next heating bill, this is not only excessive. The demands would also make 20 percent of our flights impossible and thus jeopardize the future viability of flight operations and their employees.”