The next strike is underway at Frankfurt Airport: Lufthansa’s technical staff have stopped work for three days. The airline criticizes this as “a completely inappropriate escalation”.
Lufthansa sharply criticized the Verdi union’s warning strike and called for quick negotiations in the collective bargaining dispute. “This short-term call in the technical companies with just twelve hours’ notice for a third so-called warning strike lasting three days is an incomprehensible and completely inappropriate escalation,” the company explained on Wednesday.
Verdi was offered to continue negotiations at any time – that still applies. “Specifically, we would like to continue the negotiations on March 4th, i.e. on the first working day after the end of the strike.” The goal remains a quick agreement. The next round of negotiations was previously scheduled for March 13th and 14th.
Hardly any impact on the flight plan
On Tuesday evening, Verdi called for a three-day warning strike in technical areas at Lufthansa. The strike began at 6 a.m. on Wednesday. According to the union, employees and trainees from Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Aviation Training and Lufthansa Technical Training are taking part in the nationwide campaign.
Lufthansa says it assumes that the warning strike will not have a major impact on Wednesday’s flight schedule. Passengers should still always check the status of their flight on lufthansa.com or in the Lufthansa app. The effects of the Verdi warning strike on Thursday and Friday are currently being examined.
The airline criticized that it had taken a step towards Verdi last Thursday with an improved offer and that it met key demands. So far, Verdi has led two warning strikes lasting more than a day during the conflict, with hundreds of flights canceled each time. The employee representatives recently rejected Lufthansa’s offer as inadequate and announced that if Lufthansa did not approach the union, “to our regret, passengers will soon be affected by the strike again.”
Increased Lufthansa offer rejected
After two warning strikes, each with several hundred flight cancellations – the most recent of which was just a week ago – the union and Lufthansa continued their collective bargaining for the approximately 25,000 ground workers last week without achieving any result.
“We have once again taken a big step towards Verdi and presented a new, even improved offer,” said Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann after the round of negotiations. In detail, this would mean that the first of two planned wage increases of four percent would be brought forward from December 2024 to March of this year. In addition, the inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros would now be paid out more quickly.
Verdi complained that the company had only increased its offer in two places. If the term is more than twice as long, the amount of the original claim will not even be reached. “This means that the offer does not even meet half of our demand.”
With a term increased by three to 28 months, according to the Lufthansa offer there should be ten percent higher salaries. Verdi had demanded 12.5 percent more money for the employees and the inflation compensation bonus for a period of twelve months.
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