As negotiations following a Lufthansa ground staff strike at the beginning of the month failed to come to an agreeable conclusion for both parties, employees are walking out again tomorrow, Verdi union has announced.
The “warning strike”, announced yesterday, begins on Tuesday, 20 February, at 4:00 am, and ends on Wednesday, 21 February, at 7:10 am. It will affect Lufthansa’s main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, as well as Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart airports.
The airline expects it will only be able to operate 10% to 20% of its regular schedule on Tuesday, which usually carries around 200,000 passengers a day. Moreover, since the strike continues on Wednesday morning, disruptions and cancellations are to be expected in the first half of the day as well.
The offer extended by Lufthansa in the third round of negotiations that followed the strike at the beginning of the month was rejected by 96% of the approximatively 25,000 ground staff workers that Verdi represents. The employees going on strike will not only affect Lufthansa Airline, but also Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services, Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services, as well as other group companies, ensuring disruption across the entire Lufthansa Group.
“The ground workers feel offended once again”, Verdi negotiator, Marvin Reschinsky, said in a statement. “While the group gives its pilots with annual basic incomes of up to 270,000 euros high double-digit pay increases, the ground workers with starting hourly wages of sometimes 13 euros are not even expected to compensate for the price increases of the last few years. This is blatantly anti-social.”
On behalf of the ground workers, from maintenance to passenger and aircraft handling, the union is asking for a 12.5% salary increase, but at least 500 euros per month for a period of 12 months. On top of the raise, Verdi is also asking for a one-time bonus of 3,000 euros to offset inflation.
A Lufthansa board member said the company had extended a “far reaching” offer to the union during the previous negotiations, but, according to Reschinsky, “Lufthansa was not prepared to negotiate more than their only offer”. “Management should have come to their senses after the last strike at the latest. The company therefore bears responsibility for the further escalation of the conflict”, Reschinsky added.
The next round of negotiations will take place after the strike ends, on 21 February, in Frankfurt.
