Travellers with tickets for Lufthansa flights could soon be affected by worker strikes, following a vote by the union that represents Lufthansa pilots.
In a ballot held among Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo pilots, a clear majority voted in favour of industrial action. In total, 88 percent of Lufthansa pilots and 96 percent of Lufthansa Cargo pilots supported the strike option in a vote with high participation
The decision to strike comes just a day after Lufthansa confirmed plans to cut 4,000 jobs by 2030.
No specific strike dates have yet been announced. The union’s bargaining committee is set to decide on next steps, but previous pilot strikes at Lufthansa resulted in the brand seeing the vast majority of its flight schedule cancelled.
Passengers should therefore prepare themselves for significant disruptions in the coming weeks.
The strike is related to a collective bargaining conflict over company pensions affecting around 4,800 pilots.
Initially, the pilots' union sought a tripling of employer pension contributions but reduced this demand after seven rounds of negotiation without reaching an agreement.
“We now expect Lufthansa to take the signals from the workforce seriously and finally present a negotiable offer for company pensions,” a spokesperson for the pilots' union told DPA.
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However, CEO Jens Ritter has said the company lacks the funds to increase an already “very good” company pension plan.
Further tension arose as Lufthansa’s Executive Board reaffirmed its strategy to transfer smaller aircraft and pilot jobs to lower-cost subsidiaries such as Discover and City Airlines, a move opposed by both the pilots’ union (VC) and the flight attendants’ union (Ufo).
While unions oppose this transfer of jobs and costs outside of the main Lufthansa group, strategic corporate decisions such as this are generally exempt from labour strike actions because they fall outside collective bargaining.
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With reporting by DPA.
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