Just on the day Lufthansa is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its first flight, an event Chancellor Merz is set to attend, the airline is once again hit by a strike – the fifth major strike at Lufthansa this year.
After hundreds of flights were canceled due to a pilots’ strike on Monday and Tuesday, a union has called on cabin crew to strike on Wednesday and Thursday. The pilots’ union is also calling for new strike actions on Thursday and Friday.
Arbitration proceedings
The two-day strike on Monday and Tuesday was organized by the pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC). The pilots acted because they wanted a better pension plan and better pay at Lufthansa CityLine. The pilots’ union also criticizes Lufthansa for its unwillingness to negotiate. Lufthansa, in turn, considers the pension demands “absurd” and “impossible to meet.”
The pilots’ union has therefore announced that the pilots will strike again on Thursday and Friday, including at subsidiaries CityLine and Eurowings. “The situation remains unchanged. There has been absolutely no movement on the employers’ side,” the union states. VC is now pushing for arbitration to resolve the conflict.
Cabin crew are also dissatisfied
The UFO union has also called on cabin crew to act after months of fruitless negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. A major sticking point is the lack of a social plan for the subsidiary CityLine, which is set to be dissolved and replaced by the sister company City Airlines.
The strikes will affect Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, and CityLine. There will be no strikes at other subsidiaries of the group, including Brussels Airlines. As a result, the impact on Brussels Airport will be limited.
The strike on Friday, April 10, has already affected more than 90,000 passengers, with over 520 flights canceled. In Frankfurt, three-quarters of all departing flights were canceled.
On Wednesday, Lufthansa will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first flight, an event that Chancellor Merz will also attend. According to the cabin crew union, this is an excellent opportunity to make a statement and walk off the job – a deliberate symbolic choice. However, it will undoubtedly leave a bitter aftertaste for management.
