Threatening pilots’ strike: Lufthansa wants to improve the offer

Lufthansa pilots are flexing their muscles in the deadlocked wage dispute: After threatening another strike tomorrow, the airline agreed to new negotiations and wants to improve the offer.

Faced with the threat of a second wave of strikes, Lufthansa and the Vereinigung Cockpit trade union (VC) made another attempt to resolve the collective bargaining dispute. Both sides confirmed that they would meet in the morning for negotiations. During the night, the union had announced a second wave of strikes starting on Wednesday, which could only be prevented by a “serious offer” from Lufthansa.

Lufthansa not only agreed to talks, but also announced improved tariffs for pilots. This will be brought up in today’s talks. Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann also said it was regrettable that the collective bargaining conflict continued to escalate despite an agreed negotiation date. “Nevertheless, we will do everything we can to be successful with an improved offer, even under time pressure.”

A decision must be made by 12 p.m. at the latest as to whether flights will be canceled for the threatened strike days starting tomorrow. This is necessary both for aircraft and crew scheduling and for at least a minimal lead time for the passengers concerned. In the event of a strike, Lufthansa’s flight operations can again be expected to have a significant impact, the airline said.

Strike could start as early as tomorrow

In the event of failed talks, the union had announced that there would be a strike on the departures of Lufthansa passenger planes from Germany on Wednesday and Thursday. At the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo, the strike is only planned for Wednesday. During the first wave of strikes last Friday, Lufthansa canceled the entire program of its core airline. More than 800 flights with 130,000 affected passengers were canceled and the company said it suffered economic damage of 32 million euros.

For legal reasons, Cockpit can only call workers in Germany to industrial action. Therefore, only the departures of the Lufthansa core company and Lufthansa Cargo from German airports are being struck. The subsidiaries Eurowings, Lufthansa Cityline and Eurowings Discover are not affected by the industrial action.

Cockpit changes demand for inflation compensation

Before the Munich Labor Court, the union changed its collective bargaining claim in one detail. Because the judges also expressed legal concerns about automatic inflation compensation from next year, a “flat-rate” inflation compensation of 8.2 percent is now being demanded. In the current year, salaries are expected to rise by 5.5 percent. There would also be a new salary table and more money for sick days, holidays and training.

Lufthansa: Additional costs of 900 million euros

According to Lufthansa, the combined demands would increase the personnel costs for the pilots by 40 percent. This is beyond reasonable, even without considering the financial consequences of the Corona crisis. Over a period of two years, that would mean an additional burden of 900 million euros, according to Lufthansa.

It was only in July that the ver.di trade union almost paralyzed the flight operations of Germany’s largest airline for a whole day with a warning strike by ground staff. The flight attendants’ union Ufo wants to negotiate for its members in the fall. It declared its “express and unreserved solidarity” with the pilots’ strike.