The collective bargaining dispute between Lufthansa ground staff and the employer is heading towards arbitration. The Verdi union and Lufthansa are aiming for arbitration proceedings as quickly as possible, the company said. A duty of peace should apply during the mediation. A Verdi spokeswoman also confirmed the dpa’s intention to mediate.
At the same time, preparations for a ballot should begin at the beginning or middle of next week, said Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky on Thursday evening in Frankfurt. “This means that forced strikes are also possible in a timely manner.” They don’t want any further escalation and no additional burdens for passengers. We want to achieve a result by Easter Saturday. The two arbitrators have yet to be named.
During the two days of negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday, the company did not make an improved offer. With regard to Lufthansa, the Verdi negotiator said: “It remains at its last negotiation status from the end of February.” If Lufthansa ultimately does not want the arbitration or rejects the result or no result is achieved, they are also prepared to go on a possible enforcement strike. This could take place for an unlimited period of time, “but also every now and then for several weeks. This makes Lufthansa an unsafe means of transport,” said Reschinsky.
The company said that during the round of negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday they were unable to agree on a new collective agreement for the approximately 20,000 employees of ground staff, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo and other companies.
According to a statement, Lufthansa Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann said that they had come closer to a solution, but that it had not yet been finalized. “Together we now want to clarify the open points with the help of mediation in order to then reach an agreement.” Last week, hundreds of Lufthansa flights were canceled due to a warning strike by ground staff organized by Verdi. For passengers, however, an agreement in the ground staff’s collective bargaining dispute would only mean a small relief, as several collective bargaining disputes in German air traffic are still open.
This Friday, Verdi has called for warning strikes among security workers in Hanover, Dortmund, Weeze/Niederrhein, Dresden, Leipzig and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden. Warning strikes by security staff had brought operations to a large standstill at five German airports on Thursday. According to estimates by the airport association ADV, more than 580 flight connections and 90,000 travelers are likely to be affected.
In view of the current numerous strikes in air and rail transport, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is now calling on the unions to refrain from industrial action in travel transport, at least over Easter. “I appeal to the unions to declare an Easter peace if the collective bargaining disputes in rail and air transport are not resolved by the start of the holidays,” said the minister New Osnabrücker Zeitung. Families are not parties in the collective bargaining disputes, he emphasized. “Easter peace” is needed so that people don’t have to worry about not seeing each other over the holidays.