(Rpt putty)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Lufthansa pilots went on strike on Friday, forcing the German airline to cancel hundreds of flights.
The company said it canceled around 800 flights in Frankfurt and Munich on Friday, a decision that affects 130,000 passengers.
The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union called on more than 5,000 Lufthansa pilots to walk off the job for 24 hours, saying the latest wage negotiations had failed.
Strikes and staff shortages have already forced several airlines to cancel thousands of flights this summer, leading to long queues at major airports.
The VC union is calling for a 5.5% wage increase this year and automatic indexation to inflation thereafter, as well as better conditions for entry-level pilots.
Lufthansa said the VC demands would increase its costs by 40%, or around 900 million euros over the next two years.
The airline has proposed a base salary increase of 900 euros per month in two stages over an 18-month period, which it says would result in an increase of more than 18% in salaries for entry-level positions and 5% for others.
(Report Frank Simon and Andreas Buerger, French version Tristan Chabba, edited by Matthieu Protard)
click here for restrictions
©2022 Reuters
