Because of the three-day pilots’ strike, the airline had to cancel numerous flights at the beginning of the week.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt Passengers of the Lufthansa offshoot Eurowings may have to prepare for a long tariff conflict with more and more strikes. The pilot association Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) only wants to negotiate again when there is a new offer. But that will not happen, said Eurowings CFO Kai Duve on Monday afternoon. What’s more, the management will withdraw its own offer if VC does not end its strike immediately. This emerges from a letter from management to the workforce, which is available to the Handelsblatt.
After that, management gave the union an ultimatum until 9:30 p.m. on Monday. If VC does not react, it is clear that “even our offer cannot be maintained if the economic viability is further burdened,” the letter says. The consequence would be a reduction in flight operations at the expense of the staff of Eurowings Germany. This escalates the conflict.
The pilots of Eurowings Germany started their strike on Monday night. The airline therefore had to cancel 240 of 488 flights at the beginning of the week. Not all pilots are taking part in the walkout, and partner airlines can also take over flights from the Lufthansa Group, for example. The VC wants to go on strike up to and including Wednesday. According to Duve, the walkout costs a double-digit million euro amount every day.
The management of Eurowings sees no alternative but to show the VC: up to here and no further. The VC wants to reduce the workload of the cockpit staff. The Eurowings pilots fly more than their colleagues from the core Lufthansa brand. Among other things, the VC demands 14 additional days off. The company had recently offered ten days more, plus a reduction in weekly working hours by two hours.
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That is the limit of what is economically feasible, according to CFO Duve. Internally, the managers at Eurowings have calculated that they will no longer be able to carry out around a fifth of their flight program with the current cockpit staff if the demands of VC are fully implemented.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa is raising the forecast
The open letter to around 4,000 employees and the setting of an ultimatum with severe consequences is a first in Lufthansa’s long history of collective bargaining conflicts. The collective bargaining partners have always fought hard. A dispute sometimes dragged on for several years, for example with the pilots of the core brand. But the management has never again distanced itself from its own offers during the talks and has taken such a confrontational course.
The strike and the associated costs would thwart the growth plans and force the company to “resize” Eurowings Germany, the letter continues. Eurowings Germany will shrink, for example in favor of the second flight operation, Eurowings Europe based in Malta. The letter closes with haunting words: “If we wake up in the morning and simply continue to have our company on strike, VC will not only jeopardize the prospects of EW Germany’s flight operations, but increasingly that of Eurowings as a whole.”
The strikes so far, such as those affecting pilots and ground staff at the Lufthansa core brand, have had only limited damage to the Lufthansa Group’s balance sheet. This is the result of preliminary figures published by the company on Monday evening. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose from 251 million to around 1.1 billion euros in the third quarter. The labor disputes burdened the value with about 70 million euros.
Sales almost doubled – from 5.2 billion to 10.1 billion euros. In view of the good development, the management is raising the previous forecast. An adjusted operating result of more than one billion euros should be achieved for the year as a whole. However, “unforeseen circumstances” could mean that this forecast has yet to be adjusted.
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