There has been a strike at Lufthansa since 3.45 this morning. As a precaution, the airline is canceling more than 1,000 flights at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs. According to the company, the effects could be felt until Friday.
The strike by Lufthansa ground staff, which has caused the airline to cancel almost all flights at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, began early in the morning. The strike started at 3:45 a.m. as planned, said Verdi representative Marvin Reschinsky. “The first shifts take part in the strike with a high participation rate.”
In the tariff dispute with Lufthansa, Verdi called for a warning strike until 6 a.m. on Thursday morning in the middle of the summer travel season. According to Lufthansa, 678 flights were canceled in Frankfurt am Main – 32 of them on Tuesday and 646 on Wednesday – and 345 flights in Munich, 15 of them on Tuesday and 330 on Wednesday. According to the group, a total of around 134,000 passengers are affected. Lufthansa assumes that there may still be “individual flight cancellations or delays” on Thursday and Friday.
Various Lufthansa companies are on strike, in addition to the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, also in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Hanover, Stuttgart and Cologne. Very different groups of employees are called upon, such as counter staff, aircraft technicians and the drivers of the huge tow tractors that move aircraft to the right positions at the airport.
The second round of collective bargaining between Lufthansa and Verdi for around 20,000 ground workers was unsuccessful. The union is demanding 9.5 percent more wages and a minimum hourly wage of 13 euros for a twelve-month period. Lufthansa submitted an offer consisting of fixed amounts and a component dependent on business development with a term of 18 months.
According to the company, this means an increase of nine to almost eleven percent within the next twelve months for employees with a monthly basic salary of 3000 euros gross, with a basic salary of 4000 euros gross per month an increase of 8.4 percent and at 6500 euros 5.9 percent. Verdi negotiator Christine Behle had described this as “prettily calculated”. The next round of negotiations begins next Wednesday in Frankfurt am Main. Verdi has called for a “significantly improved, final offer”.