A hard blow for Lufthansa, the pilots threaten to go on strike
While strikes in the transport sector have multiplied worldwide since the beginning of the summer, the risk of Lufthansa aircraft being grounded in the near future is also growing. It would be a blow to the German company, which this week has already had to cancel thousands of flights this summer.
arm wrestling
The pilots of the German airline actually voted almost unanimously (97.6%) in favor of the strike principle on Sunday in order to push through their demands, in particular a significant wage increase. This vote does not necessarily mean a strike, but is a warning to the management, said Marcel Gröls, member of the management of the pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC).
Lufthansa respects the result of the vote and hopes that a constructive solution will be found at the negotiating table, a company spokesman said. The VC union is calling for a wage increase of 5.5 percent for pilots this year and then automatic inflation compensation. In addition, she calls for the introduction of a uniform salary table for all employees of the Lufthansa Group companies, including the company of the same name, but also their low-cost division Eurowings. In order to secure the jobs of the pilots, the union is also demanding a volume guarantee for the Lufthansa fleet.
At the same time, the pilots of the Swiss company, which has also belonged to the Lufthansa Group since 2005, rejected a proposal for a new contract with a majority of 80 percent, their union Aeropers announced on Sunday.
“If management continues to ignore the signs of the times and does not offer adequate solutions immediately, drivers will have to express their dissatisfaction even more clearly,” the union added without giving further details.
Lufthansa ground staff are also demanding wage increases of 9.5 percent. On July 27, they took part in a 24-hour walkout that caused significant traffic delays in Germany. But in both cases, management refuses to pay wage demands.
As a precaution, Lufthansa canceled it ” almost everything » of today’s flights in Germany. More than 130,000 passengers were affected on almost a thousand flights to and from the two main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.
