Update
27 hours from Tuesday morning
Verdi calls on Lufthansa ground staff for a new strike
February 18, 2024, 1:07 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The collective bargaining dispute between Verdi and Lufthansa over the working conditions of ground staff is entering the next round. An improved offer is not enough for the union; from Tuesday morning nothing will work at the larger airports in Germany.
The service union Verdi has again called on Lufthansa’s ground staff to strike in the collective bargaining dispute. According to the union, employees should stop work from Tuesday at 4 a.m. to Wednesday at 7:10 a.m. The airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart are affected. In addition to Lufthansa passenger transport, the Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa Cargo divisions are also affected by the dispute. For these, different times would apply for the warning strike, explained Verdi.
A 27-hour strike at the beginning of February largely paralyzed flight operations at the Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Around 900 of 1,000 planned flights were canceled, affecting around 100,000 passengers, according to Lufthansa.
Lufthansa improved its offer last week. It provides ten percent more money in the next twelve months. The union is demanding 12.5 percent more salary and at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months for the 25,000 Lufthansa employees on the ground.
Verdi calls Lufthansa’s salary policy “crazy anti-social”
“The ground workers once again feel offended,” explained Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky about Lufthansa’s current offer. 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 should not even be compensated for the price increases of the last few years. This is “blatantly anti-social”.
Reschinsky regretted the further escalation of the conflict: “We don’t want this escalation. We want a quick result for employees and passengers.” Management should have come to their senses after the last strike last Wednesday at the latest. The Verdi negotiator accused the Lufthansa management of not being prepared to “negotiate about more than their only offer” at the last negotiation date.
Currently there is still a pilot strike at Discover Airlines
Meanwhile, a three-day strike by pilots at Lufthansa’s holiday airline Discover Airlines, called for by the Cockpit Association (VC), is running until Monday evening. According to the company, 8 of 19 flights for the airline, which departs from Frankfurt and Munich, will be canceled on Sunday. The passengers will be rebooked on flights of other Lufthansa airlines. On Saturday, a third of Discover flights were unable to take off as planned. The VC wants to enforce the conclusion of collective agreements for the first time at the still young airline, which has around 400 cockpit employees in a fleet of 24 aircraft.
The airline recently concluded a contract with the works council, which, according to the VC, corresponds to the collective remuneration agreement that is almost ready to be concluded. However, the union is pushing for a collective agreement for which, unlike the company agreement, strikes can be made. The airline agreed to further collective bargaining negotiations. The VC called on cockpit staff from the parent company Lufthansa to go on a solidarity strike for Discover employees on Monday morning. This affects four long-haul flights with the Boeing 787.
A Lufthansa spokesman said that enough staff had been found so that the flights could take place. Lufthansa operations manager Karl Brandes criticized the support strike. This means that the collective bargaining peace achieved at Lufthansa Airlines last year without industrial action is reduced to absurdity.