The cockpit staff of the largest German airline has spoken out in favor of the work stoppage by a large majority.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The majority of the pilots of the Lufthansa core brand have spoken out in favor of a strike. This was announced by the Vereinigung Cockpit union (VC) on Sunday afternoon. According to this, 97.6 percent of the cockpit staff at Lufthansa and 99.3 percent at Lufthansa Cargo voted in principle for a labor dispute in the ballot.
Whether and when the VC will actually call on the approximately 5,000 pilots of the premium airline Lufthansa to walk out remains open for the time being. “Also in the interest of our passengers, Lufthansa now needs a serious willingness to find a solution in order to jointly create creative solutions in the interests of the company and its employees,” explained Marcel Gröls, Chairman of Tariff Policy at VC.
A ballot will be initiated if the previous negotiations are declared to have failed. The VC did so after several rounds of talks. According to the union, Lufthansa had not submitted a negotiable offer by then.
Nevertheless, the collective bargaining partners continue to talk to each other. So-called exploratory talks are underway to examine whether there is still a way to resolve the collective bargaining conflict at the negotiating table. Both sides have recently emphasized their interest in a peaceful solution.
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Many pilots are uncomfortable with the idea of going on strike. Lufthansa is going through a difficult time. The pandemic is still not over, and at the same time the airlines in the group are finding it difficult to ramp up flight operations because there is a lack of staff everywhere.
However, the frustration among the pilots of the so-called group collective agreement (KTV) is great. This regulates the conditions in the core brand Lufthansa and at Lufthansa Cargo. This is not least due to the management’s decision to terminate the so-called perspective agreement at the end of last year.
This had guaranteed the KTV pilots a minimum fleet and thus job security and plannable opportunities for advancement. Instead, the group management wants to shrink the core brand and hand over the feeder services at the two hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the planned airline Cityline 2.0 if there is no agreement with VC.
This threat overshadows the ongoing wage talks. Given this, there are also many voices in the pilot community who believe that there can be no solution without industrial action.
A collective bargaining dispute is also smoldering with Verdi
According to information from the specialist portal Aero.de, the VC recently brought a so-called scope clause into play. It is used by some American airlines. There are various tariff classes within a collective agreement, which are based, for example, on the number of seats on the aircraft used. However, it is not known whether such a proposal can form the basis for a solution.
So far, VC has been demanding 5.5 percent more wages this year and automatic inflation compensation from next year. In addition, the pilots’ representation is striving for a uniform collective agreement for the entire cockpit staff of the group. So far, there have been separate regulations for each flight operation. The VC wants to solve a problem that has been making work difficult for the union for a long time.
>> Read about this: Lufthansa is threatened with relegation from the world league
The union is in danger of being crushed between the different interests of the individual groups of pilots. The VC management therefore intends to coordinate better with each other in the future. It is an open question whether this can be achieved in view of the sometimes very different collective agreements.
The collective bargaining dispute with Verdi is also unresolved. The union had called the group’s approximately 20,000 ground workers to a one-day warning strike last Wednesday. 1000 flights and thus almost the entire flight program had to be cancelled. Both want to continue negotiations this Wednesday and Thursday.
Lufthansa is not the only airline in Europe suffering from labor disputes in the midst of the difficult restart. The pilots of the British low-cost airline Easyjet in Spain have announced a strike for August. The walkout is expected to last nine days. At British Airways, the Balpa union is currently voting on a strike by cockpit staff. The airline management was just able to avert a strike by the ground staff.
The motivation is the same everywhere. After some major waivers during the pandemic, the unions want to at least return to the status before the pandemic, combined with a surcharge. Because inflation is currently high and will probably remain at a very high level for a long time.
However, since the balance sheets of many airlines are burdened with debt after the crisis, the airline leaders are having a hard time with the demands. The Lufthansa management, for example, has a certain understanding that the low salaries of many ground workers have to be raised significantly because of inflation.
But when it comes to the demands of the usually well-paid pilots of the Lufthansa core brand, the management is likely to show toughness. According to the clear result of the ballot, this could further increase the risk of a strike.
More: Now the pilots’ strike is also threatening: Lufthansa is in a permanent crisis