Cancellation of flights
Lufthansa strike affects more than 100,000 passengers
February 5, 2024, 5:35 p.m
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The fronts have hardened: Lufthansa’s ground staff are stopping work all day, and the company criticizes this as disproportionate. Lufthansa companies with a total of 25,000 employees will be on strike throughout Wednesday. Hundreds of flights are canceled.
Lufthansa and its customers are facing the next wave of strikes with numerous flight cancellations and delays. This Wednesday (February 7th), the Verdi union has called on the ground staff of several Lufthansa companies, including technology, to go on an all-day warning strike. The company expects to be able to offer 100 to 200 connections out of around 1,000 planned flights.
The company spoke of more than 100,000 affected passengers who will have to change their plans. A spokesman explained that the flights of the Lufthansa core brand were mainly affected. 10 to 20 percent of these flights should take place to and from Frankfurt and Munich, both intercontinental connections and European flights. The details would be entered into the database of the website “lufthansa.com” and passengers would be informed accordingly.
The Lufthansa locations in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf will be on strike on Wednesday, as Verdi announced. “We assume that 80, 90 percent of the Lufthansa program and that of its subsidiaries will be discontinued,” said a Verdi spokesman this morning. Around 400 Lufthansa flights are planned for Wednesday at Munich Airport alone. The warning strike is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 4:00 a.m. and last until Thursday at 7:10 a.m.
At the smaller Lufthansa holiday flight subsidiary Discover Airlines, a pilot strike had already had an impact: on Monday, the second day of the strike, only two of the twelve originally planned departures were possible in Frankfurt, as shown in the airport’s online departure schedule. Nine flights were canceled and a connection to Windhoek in Namibia was postponed to Tuesday. Also on Sunday, 10 of the holiday airline’s 16 planned departures were canceled. The Discover flights planned from Munich on behalf of the parent company Lufthansa were to be offered by the parent company itself.
12.5 percent more salary required
According to Verdi, only Lufthansa companies with a total of around 25,000 employees will go on strike on Wednesday. Specifically named: Deutsche Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services and Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services. In Munich and Frankfurt in particular, it could happen that striking Lufthansa counter staff are not available to customers of other group companies such as Swiss or Austrian. The technology also services machines from other LH group companies, and the Lufthansa-Leos company, which is on strike in Düsseldorf, also acts as a ground transport service provider for other companies. Lufthansa assumes 20,000 employees, while Verdi counts non-tariff workers.
The company criticized the union’s actions: “Even before the actual negotiations have begun, the length and extent of the strike are completely incomprehensible,” it said. The warning strike is putting a disproportionate burden on guests and employees, said Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann. He referred to the current offer, which includes, among other things, increases in remuneration and additional benefits totaling over 13 percent over the next three years as well as a significant inflation compensation bonus. Verdi wants to increase the pressure on employers with the warning strike.
The union rejected the offer in the second round of negotiations. According to Verdi, the sticking points were the increase increments, which were perceived as being too low, and the 36-month term. “This strike would be unnecessary if Lufthansa were to grant ground employees the same increases as other employee groups in the company,” said Verdi’s negotiator Marvin Reschinsky, according to the statement. Better working conditions for the staff are also necessary to provide better service to passengers. “If Lufthansa doesn’t realize this after this first warning strike, then the employees are prepared to go on longer strikes,” said Reschinsky.
“Travellers become pawns”
In the ongoing collective bargaining dispute, Verdi is demanding 12.5 percent more salary, but at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months. There will also be a group-wide uniform inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros. The next round of negotiations is planned for February 12th in Frankfurt am Main. According to Verdi, three more rounds have been agreed. In the Lufthansa Group, in addition to the subsidiary Discover, the youngest subsidiary City Airlines is not subject to tariffs for the various professional groups, so there is a risk of further conflicts there. At the parent company Lufthansa, the cabin union UFO has already threatened a warning strike.
The airports are currently the scene of frequent labor disputes. Just last week, Verdi organized a warning strike by aviation security forces at several airports. According to the airport association ADV, around 1,100 flights were canceled and 200,000 passengers had to reschedule. ADV Managing Director Ralph Beisel sharply criticized the approach: “The dispute is once again being fought on the backs of bystanders. Germany, which is already disadvantaged as an air traffic location due to restrictive regulations, is being damaged. Travelers are becoming pawns.”