Lufthansa pilots and cabin crew will walk out tomorrow due to a wage dispute and working conditions. The strike will affect all Lufthansa flights and those operated by its cargo division, Lufthansa Cargo, departing from Germany.
The exact extent of the cancellations is still unclear, but passengers should expect flight cancellations and delays in any case. A spokesperson for the company says they are waiting for more detailed information from the trade unions.
The pilots are striking because of a long-running dispute over their pension scheme. For the flight attendants, the dispute is about employment and the future of staff at subsidiaries.
Stock market-dependent pension
There has been tension between Lufthansa pilots and management for some time. The reason for the conflict is the pension scheme. Until 2017, pilots had a so-called Defined Benefit scheme. This meant that Lufthansa promised a fixed monthly amount after retirement, regardless of how the economy performed.
Following new agreements, this guaranteed pension has become a stock-market-dependent pension, or a defined-contribution scheme. Only Lufthansa’s contribution is fixed. The final pension amount depends on the stock market’s performance.
The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) trade union is now demanding that Lufthansa significantly increases its employer contribution to the pension fund, with reports of a €2,400 per month per pilot increase. In other words, the pilots want more certainty about a guaranteed pension and therefore a higher contribution to offset the risk of stock market prices.
CityLine to be phased out
The conflict between flight attendants and stewards largely centers on the future of staff at the regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, which specializes in flying passengers from smaller European cities to Frankfurt and Munich.
The union fears that jobs will be lost or that staff will be transferred to the new entity, City Airlines, under poorer working conditions. The union wants to enforce a social plan that regulates severance pay and job security, something that Lufthansa has so far refused to formally negotiate.
No impact on flights operated by subsidiaries
Due to the strike action, almost all Lufthansa flights departing from Germany tomorrow will be cancelled or delayed. Flights to Germany should, in principle, continue, provided that the aircraft was already outside Germany before the strike began.
Flights operated by subsidiaries such as Eurowings, Brussels Airlines, and SWISS are also excluded from this action.
