Those involved will not soon forget this Tuesday. During the night, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union announced a second round of strikes at Lufthansa in order to increase the pressure in the negotiations. She left the back door open so that she could cancel the walkout again if she received a serious offer. Lo and behold: Lufthansa negotiator and HR director Michael Niggemann went through the door with a new proposal and VC canceled the strike.
But what the two sides actually agreed on is still a mystery, at least in the details, especially since neither Lufthansa nor the union were more willing to provide information the next day. Jens Ritter, head of the Lufthansa passenger airline, gave the best insight in an interview published in the internal media: It is Lufthansa’s “declared wish” to conclude a new perspective agreement with the pilots.
What still sounds puzzling to outsiders is a pretty significant statement internally. Because it makes it clear that Lufthansa has not only negotiated salaries with the pilots, but also wants to achieve a solution to strategic issues that have been a strain on the relationship for a long time, but over which the union is not allowed to go on strike. Such a comprehensive agreement should prevent the big conflict erupting every few years in connection with collective bargaining. But the talks take time.
According to SZ information, the two sides bought time on Tuesday. According to reports, there is more money for the pilots immediately, the exact amount per employee is said to be significantly more than the 800 euros last rumored. The fact that there would be a significant salary increase has long been out of the question. However, the collective agreement is short-lived and, according to informed circles, will expire in just under a year. Until then, Lufthansa and VC have time to get the really controversial non-tariff issues under control. Of course, there are no strikes during this time either.
Above all, the issues of the prospective agreement and new subsidiaries need to be clarified. Lufthansa terminated the old perspective agreement shortly before Christmas 2021. In it, the group had guaranteed the pilots of the core brand a certain minimum number of aircraft, namely 325 machines including the now defunct Germanwings. CEO Carsten Spohr argued at the time that Lufthansa would no longer be able to reach the stated fleet size in the foreseeable future due to the corona pandemic. Therefore the agreement makes no sense. In the meantime, he himself describes their termination as a mistake, especially since demand in air traffic has come back much faster and stronger than was foreseeable at the end of last year.
However, a new basic agreement should not look like the old one, because new topics have been added in the meantime. One of them is the so-called “CityLine II”, a new subsidiary planned by Spohr, which should hire pilots at lower salaries and fly feeder flights to Frankfurt and Munich from spring 2023. The pilots saw this as a threat. According to Ritter, City Line II should now be part of the new deal, meaning: In all probability it will not come for the time being.