Status: 07/28/2022 07:18 a.m
According to the union ver.di, the warning strike by the ground staff at Lufthansa has been over since six o’clock. Flight operations can resume as normal. More than 130,000 passengers were affected by the walkout.
The Lufthansa ground staff are no longer on strike. The walkout that began early Wednesday morning “ended at six o’clock,” ver.di representative Marvin Reschinsky told the AFP news agency. “The employees have resumed their work and flight operations can take place regularly.”
Lufthansa has not yet provided any information on the situation at the airports. A company spokeswoman said yesterday that it was expected that flight operations would “quickly return to normal” after the strike. The planned flight program can probably be implemented again today.
More than 130,000 passengers affected by strike
The Lufthansa ground staff had largely brought the airline’s operations to a standstill with a strike in the middle of the summer travel season. The airline canceled almost all flights at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, and Lufthansa feeder flights from the capital’s BER airport to Frankfurt and Munich were also canceled. Lufthansa spoke of around a thousand canceled flights, with more than 130,000 passengers reportedly affected.
The second round of collective bargaining between Lufthansa and ver.di for around 20,000 ground workers was unsuccessful. The union is demanding 9.5 percent more wages and a minimum hourly wage of 13 euros for a twelve-month period.
Lufthansa submitted an offer consisting of fixed amounts and a component dependent on business development for a term of 18 months. Negotiations are scheduled to continue on August 3rd and 4th in Frankfurt am Main.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing meanwhile called on ver.di and Lufthansa to reach a rapid agreement on the collective bargaining dispute. “Responsible and fast negotiation is appropriate after air traffic already has enough problems to deal with,” Wissing told the “Bild” newspaper. The conflict must be resolved “within the framework of collective bargaining autonomy”. “Both parties to the collective bargaining agreement should think of the travelers and not settle their dispute on their backs.”