The flight attendant union UFO has declared the collective bargaining negotiations to have failed and is calling on its members to vote. Lufthansa passengers have to prepare for new strikes in the next collective bargaining dispute.
Lufthansa must expect another strike in March. The Independent Flight Attendants Organization, or UFO for short, has declared collective bargaining with the airline to have failed.
The union called on its members to vote on strikes. From next week you can vote on industrial action until March 6th.
According to UFO, offer is not sufficient
The union’s justification was that Lufthansa had not presented a sufficient offer for the approximately 18,000 cabin employees in another top-level meeting.
“We don’t like to go down the path of escalation, but we have no alternative as long as Lufthansa doesn’t respond to our legitimate demands,” said UFO chairman Joachim Vázquez Bürger. During the crisis, employees made major concessions to secure jobs. Citizens say they expect a high level of participation in the ballot.
Warning of new “chaos summer”
At the same time, UFO warned of renewed chaos at the peak summer travel season, which Lufthansa was heading towards: “The planning is inadequate and the staff shortage is dramatic,” it said.
The union had already unilaterally broken off salary negotiations for the parent company’s flight attendants at the end of January and appeared ready to fight. She terminated the collective wage agreement for the Lufthansa cabin at the end of 2023.
Industrial disputes affect many areas
With the strike vote by the flight attendants, Lufthansa is now facing the escalation of the next collective bargaining dispute. Recently, the pilots of the subsidiary airline Discover went on strike to force the conclusion of a collective agreement for the first time.
This week, a second warning strike by ground staff almost paralyzed Lufthansa operations. Hundreds of flights were canceled and more than 100,000 passengers had to reschedule. A quick agreement with the ver.di union is not in sight.
Collective bargaining for the aviation security forces is also ongoing. A nationwide warning strike that ver.di organized at the beginning of February also resulted in large-scale flight cancellations.