collective bargaining
Eurowings pilots are on strike on Thursday for longer rest periods
Eurowings Airbus jets at Dusseldorf Airport
© Rupert Oberhäuser / Imago Images
After another unsuccessful round of negotiations, the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union called for a day-long strike at Eurowings on Thursday. There will be flight cancellations at the Lufthansa subsidiary.
Pilots at the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings have been called to go on strike on Thursday. The union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) justified the industrial action on Tuesday with “failed” negotiations on the collective agreement. Among other things, VC calls for longer rest periods for the pilots. The airline criticized the call for a strike and the demands as “excessive”. However, she assumed that she would be able to handle a “significant part” of the flight offer on Thursday.
According to VC, the strike should begin at midnight on Thursday night and last 24 hours. The reason is that a total of ten rounds of negotiations “had not led to any significant rapprochement,” the union said. She calls for relief for employees – for example by reducing the maximum flight duty times and increasing the rest periods.
The collective bargaining agreement has existed since 2015 “without any adjustments,” explained VC. Since then, the workload has “increased significantly”. “The employer regularly exhausts the working time of the colleagues up to the permissible maximum, this cannot be a permanent situation,” explained VC spokesman Matthias Baier. He accused the Eurowings management of “lack of accommodation” and a lack of will to find a solution.
“Completely disproportionate and irresponsible”.
The Eurowings management criticized the demands sharply: “Despite two upcoming salary increases of well over ten percent in the next four months, VC is demanding 14 additional days off a year and a reduction in the maximum weekly working time by five hours,” explained the finance and HR manager Kai Duve. This would “make impossible” 20 percent of Eurowings flights. To go on strike is “completely disproportionate and irresponsible”.
At the same time, the airlines were relaxed about the effects of the strike, “since only Eurowings Germany’s flight operations are on strike, not Eurowings Europe’s”. In addition, Eurowings has “numerous wet lease partners” – leased aircraft including crew – under contract, the company said.
Lufthansa flights are also not affected by the strike. At the beginning of September, a pilots’ strike at the parent company had almost completely paralyzed its flight operations. It was about wage demands of the VC.
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