Pilots and cabin crew to stage four-day strike at German airline Discover

The strike, set to begin early on Tuesday August 27th and last until the end of the day Friday August 30th, is being held over a collective bargaining dispute.

The airline operates 27 aircraft from Munich and Frankfurt to holiday destinations in Europe and overseas. The industrial action will likely cause severe disruptions to people's holiday plans. 

Plots and cabin crew staff are to stop work from just after midnight on Monday until the end of the day on Friday, according to unions. All departures from Germany will be affected.

A notice on the Discover Airlines website said: "The trade unions Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and the Independent Flight Attendants' Organisation (UFO) have called for strikes on all Discover Airlines flights from August 27th until the 30th at midnight. We are working to minimise the impact on our guests. Please check your current flight status regularly and enter your contact details in your booking."

The pilots' association and the UFO are calling for a strike to enforce their own collective bargaining agreements. The union Verdi recently struck a collective bargaining agreement with Discover, but the majority of workers were not satisfied with the agreement's terms. 

"Unfortunately, this will have an unavoidable impact on Discover Airlines flights," said UFO boss Joachim Vazquez Bürger. "We sincerely regret this circumstance."

Employees voted with a large majority in favour of industrial action in separate ballots.

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VC and UFO had previously spent months negotiating with the airline's management about concluding collective agreements and said they were close to signing them.

They suspect that the Lufthansa Group's strategy of weakening influential trade unions is behind the switch to Verdi.

Around 1,900 people work on board Discover's flights, however, it is not known how many of them belong to a union. 

It comes after a wave of strikes - including in the airline sector - caused major disruption earlier this year in Germany. Pilots at Discover Airlines were called out on strike then.