Image: APA/AFP/CHRISTOF STACHE
As soon as the ground staff’s warning strike ended, the UFO cabin union called on the approximately 19,000 flight attendants at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cityline to go on strike next Tuesday and Wednesday. All departures from Frankfurt will be on strike from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Tuesday and all departures from Munich on Wednesday, as UFO announced on Saturday evening.
The flight attendants of the core company and the regional subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline had previously voted for the strike in separate ballots with more than 96 percent each. The Lufthansa Group criticized the union for unnecessarily carrying out the collective bargaining dispute on the backs of the passengers. UFO is expected to hit around 100,000 passengers with this strike. Lufthansa is currently checking the effects on the flight schedule.
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Human resources director Michael Niggemann emphasized that there was a very good offer on the table. “We remain ready for dialogue and call on the UFO to sit down with us at the negotiating table again.”
Lufthansa is essentially offering its employees 6.0 percent more money for August 2024 and 3.25 percent for August 2025 for a term of 24 months. In addition, an inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros is to be paid in April 2024. For the Cityline, with a term of 30 months, there should be 5.0 percent more for March 2024, 3.0 percent more for March 2025 and 2.5 percent more for January 2026. In addition, the remaining inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros is paid out.
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Ufo emphasized that the group had only announced a net profit of almost 1.7 billion euros for 2023 on Thursday. “The cabin must now also be involved in this success and the concessions that were made during the Corona crisis must be sufficiently compensated,” said Joachim Vázquez Bürger, UFO board chairman.
Demand for a 15 percent wage increase
For Lufthansa’s approximately 18,000 cabin employees and the almost 1,000 Cityline employees – the company speaks of a total of around 20,000 employees – UFO is essentially demanding 15 percent more money for a contract term of 18 months. The union also wants to achieve an inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros and higher allowances. In the separate collective bargaining negotiations, the union rejected the respective offers as inadequate.
Last week, the ground staff organized by Verdi paralyzed much of Lufthansa’s passenger traffic with what was now their fifth wave of warning strikes. The final effects of the strike, which lasted more than two days, were still felt on Saturday morning with some flight cancellations and delays.
Strike at Deutsche Bahn
In addition to hundreds of canceled flights, there were also thousands of train cancellations. At the same time, the train drivers’ union GDL had called for industrial action in rail transport. Anyone who wanted to travel within Germany had to use their own car, long-distance buses, rental cars or ride-sharing companies. Verdi and the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) did not coordinate their strikes.
The GDL is still prepared to strike in order to achieve its goal of reducing the weekly working hours of train drivers without any loss in wages and only wants to announce further possible actions at short notice. There is an offer from Deutsche Bahn in the room. However, before renewed negotiations, the union demanded that an improved offer be presented. The uncertainty for passengers and passengers remains high.
The Independent Flight Attendants Organization (UFO), founded in 1992, is a sectoral union that exclusively represents flight attendants, primarily at Condor and the Lufthansa Group. In individual flight operations it competes with the DGB union Verdi, which also wants to organize the flying staff. Coordinated cooperation between the two unions is unlikely.
In the post-Corona year of 2022, UFO was the only union in the Lufthansa Group to refrain from industrial action. In the collective bargaining agreement, the lower wage groups in particular were raised, while the inflation compensation bonus was postponed until the current collective bargaining round.
Until the first strike in 2012, which was also about preventing temporary work, the representation of the mostly service-oriented cabin crew was considered rather reserved. That changed in the following years, when then-chairman Nicoley Baublies led the UFO in the longest strike in Lufthansa’s history in 2015, lasting eight days. A warning strike at the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover this year was the last work stoppage led by the union, which has had to contend with considerable intra-union squabbles since 2018. The current chairman, Joachim Vazquez Bürger, flies with Lufthansa Cityline and was elected in November 2023.
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