24 hour walkout
Pilots from a Lufthansa subsidiary go on strike
January 24, 2024, 8:36 p.m
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The Lufthansa holiday airline Discover has been operating without collective agreements for staff for more than two years. A strike should now change that. Shortly after the initial vote, the industrial action follows.
The pilots at the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines are on strike this Friday (January 26th). A 24-hour strike is planned, according to a member circular from the Cockpit Association (VC) union. In the initial vote that ended on Tuesday, almost 96 percent of members voted for industrial action.
The VC wants to enforce the first collective agreements on salaries and general conditions at the holiday airline, which was founded two and a half years ago, and has declared negotiations with the company to have failed. There is currently no collective agreement for cabin crews either. The UFO union is negotiating there.
Discover Airlines criticized the decision and announced that it was “currently assuming that the strike would have far-reaching effects” on flight operations and for passengers. A replacement flight plan is being drawn up. The priority is to “get as many travelers as possible to their destination”.
A first warning strike by the pilots on the day before Christmas Eve went smoothly for most passengers. Discover was able to reschedule flights to times outside the five-hour strike window. However, if the strike is prolonged, flight cancellations could quickly occur. After the surprising warning strike in December, Lufthansa demanded an additional agreement on how to deal with each other – a so-called social partner charter. This was promptly viewed by the VC as a restriction on freedom of collective bargaining.
The Lufthansa Group’s holiday airline was initially launched in the Corona summer of 2021 under the name “Eurowings Discover” and was later renamed “Discover Airlines”. The 24 aircraft so far are used at the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich on long and medium-haul flights. The Discover is intended to be cheaper than the Lufthansa core brand and to compete with other holiday airlines such as the Condor in the lucrative leisure market.