The technical warning strike is not over yet; the Verdi union at Lufthansa is calling on the next group of ground workers. This time it’s the cargo that’s hit.
In the collective bargaining dispute among Lufthansa ground staff, the Verdi union has once again tightened the pace. It is calling on around 2,500 collective bargaining employees at the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo to go on a warning strike on Saturday, as negotiator Marvin Reschinsky announced on Friday. The three-day warning strike at the various technology companies was supposed to end at midnight.
The trade unionist explained that the passenger area would once again be spared. “The strikes are intended to create economic pressure and not primarily affect passengers.” Lufthansa must return to the negotiating table with an improved offer. So far, the next round of negotiations is scheduled for March 13th and 14th. Verdi is only willing to hold earlier discussions if the offer is increased.
Lufthansa reacted sharply to the new warning strike. A company spokesman fundamentally questioned the continuation of negotiations because the union showed no interest in common solutions. “Verdi would rather go on strike. We strongly condemn the idea of setting preliminary conditions in order to even return to the negotiating table. Against this background, we must examine whether and how we can continue collective bargaining with Verdi.”
Lufthansa Cargo CFO Frank Bauer spoke of a major loss of trust and quality as a result of the strikes. “In the last three days alone we had to cancel 28 freighter flights and as a result have lost a mid-single-digit million amount. The new strike puts an additional burden on us and directly strengthens our competitors – it does not increase our room for maneuver in negotiations.”
According to both sides, the impact of the technology strike that started on Wednesday on passenger traffic was small. The cargo employees, who primarily work at the Frankfurt hub, should stop work on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 11:10 p.m. According to Verdi, there are still large backlogs in the freight business from the two previous waves of warning strikes.
Source: Stern
