The airline’s captains want to go on strike.
(Photo: Getty Images; Per-Anders Pettersson)
Frankfurt Lufthansa is canceling almost its entire program because of the announced pilot strike on Friday. Around 800 flights with an estimated 130,000 affected passengers are canceled at the Munich and Frankfurt hubs, the company announced on Thursday.
In the wage dispute, the pilots of the core brand Lufthansa and the freight subsidiary LH Cargo want to go on strike on Friday. The employer did not submit an improved offer this week, so that the negotiations failed, the union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said on Wednesday night. “Therefore, the only thing left for us to do is to enforce our demands with a labor dispute.”
“In order to avert labor disputes, Lufthansa must present a significantly improved offer,” said Marcel Gröls, responsible for wage policy at VC. However, it is questionable whether that will happen this Thursday. Lufthansa sees little room to further meet VC’s demands. The would be “outside of the reasonable,” it says in a statement.
The risk of a violent industrial dispute on Friday is therefore very high. The pilots are aware that a strike by a professional group that is among the best paid in the group will trigger clear criticism. But the frustration of the pilots is great. They fear that the size of the core brand will continue to shrink at the expense of other platforms such as Eurowings. Therefore, the strike participation is likely to be very high.
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A look at the strike by Lufthansa ground staff, which Verdi called for at the end of July, shows what that means. Thousands of flights had to be canceled and around 130,000 passengers were affected. The strike on Friday will primarily affect traffic at the two Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, including long-haul connections and many feeder flights.
Lufthansa: 40 percent higher wage costs not manageable
The VC insists on real wage protection in times of high inflation and improvements in the remuneration structure. Lufthansa considers this requirement to be unworkable. And make a detailed account. The demand for 5.5 percent more wages by the end of the year and for compensation above inflation from January 2023 means 16 percent higher wage costs over a period of two years.
In addition, the VC wanted a new so-called salary table with a higher basic salary and more money, for example for sick days, vacation or training. This will increase the costs for cockpit personnel by a further 25 percentage points. The management currently estimates the cockpit personnel costs at 2.2 billion euros. This value would then increase by more than 40 percent or 900 million euros over the next two years.
Lufthansa submitted a good offer, “despite the lingering effects of the corona crisis and the uncertain prospects for the global economy,” said HR Director Michael Niggemann. The management is aiming for a degree over 18 months, in which the pilots will receive a total of 900 euros more basic salary per month in two stages. The starting salaries should benefit more. A career starter as a co-pilot would receive 18 percent more basic remuneration over the term, with a captain the plus in the final stage would be five percent.
>> Also read: How much do pilots earn? Eurowings and Lufthansa
In addition, the Lufthansa management has offered to want to conclude a new perspective agreement. Lufthansa canceled this at the end of last year. In the agreement, the management assures the pilots of a minimum fleet and thus guarantees them job security and plannable opportunities for advancement.
The topic overshadows the current collective bargaining talks. Because the group management around CEO Carsten Spohr wants to hand over feeder traffic at the two hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the planned airline Cityline 2.0 if there is no agreement with VC.
“The pilots are very frustrated. Nevertheless, this strike is completely exaggerated in the current difficult situation,” says Gerald Wissel from the aviation consulting company Airborne Consulting in Hamburg: “It is important now that the lower wage groups, such as ground staff, get their chance, as was the case with the Verdi agreement was also achieved.”
Despite the offers and the criticism, the VC union has so far remained firm. Above all, she insists on a new structure for the basic salary. “We are currently too far apart,” said collective bargaining expert Gröls: “In addition to compensating for the loss in real wages, what we now need above all is a future-proof solution for the remuneration structure in all professional groups.”
But management has so far refused to do so. The company argues that, given the high level of debt after the corona crisis, costs should not rise sharply.
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