Lufthansa Pilots Vote For Strike Action, More Chaos & Delays Looming For Travelers

Lufthansa pilots are once again in a dispute with the company over pay and benefits, resulting in an overwhelming vote in favor of the next pilot strike if the two parties can’t come together.

Just days after the labor union ver.di paralysed Frankfurt and Munich Airport with a strike of their own and no clear solution for that negotiation in sight either, problems are mounting for Lufthansa and their passengers.

The company has maneuvered itself into a position where it really can’t win. After years of cost-cutting, service reductions, and staff layoffs during the pandemic, the salami is sliced extremely thin and the mood of the employees is sour.

As Tagesschau reports, pilots now voted overwhelmingly for a new strike.

Lufthansa pilots voted in favor of a strike by a large majority. This has not yet been applied for, but the vote is a clear signal to the airline in the collective bargaining.

The union is now expecting “good offers” from the group. The Lufthansa pilots voted in a ballot for a strike – but it has not yet been decided that there will also be a labor dispute. 97.6 percent of the Lufthansa pilots and 99.3 percent of the pilots in the cargo division had spoken out in favor of a strike, said the union Cockpit (VC).

In the collective bargaining, VC is demanding 5.5 percent more wages, automatic inflation compensation and a uniform tariff structure in the company, which currently employs around 5,000 pilots. By the end of the year, around 400 are to leave the company as part of a severance program because of the Corona crisis.

Lufthansa said it respected the outcome of the vote. “We continue to rely on constructive discussions in order to find a common solution with the VC”. New talks have already been agreed.

The group wants to limit its personnel costs. Pilots of the core brand earn well over 200,000 euros a year, in other divisions it is less. VC accuses Lufthansa of circumventing collective agreements with these constructions. …

Lufthansa is indeed slashing their number of pilots that are employed with the Lufthansa brand as the company deemed them to be “too expensive” which is rather surprising considering CEO Carsten Spohr himself is a former Lufthansa pilot.

At the same time, the LH Group is hiring pilots for their other, lower classed brands, such as Eurowings but with vastly less lucrative contracts.

It seems that travelers in Germany can’t catch a breath. Someone is always on strike at Lufthansa or the airport personnel.

I can understand that pilots don’t like the whole bunch of different contracts in the group that are classifying themselves and their colleagues into different classes while at the end of the day, they have the same responsibilities and words for the same head company.

The branding theater at Lufthansa has become a joke. Is there any part of the operation left that hasn’t received its own company registration to squeeze another buck out of the employees and the taxman?

Conclusion

Lufthansa pilots have voted for strike action again and this might get underway in the coming weeks/months depending on how the negotiations between LH and the pilots union go. It’s really sad what happened to this once very good airline that was known for efficiency and quality. Management managed to completely destroy the brand in the last 10-12 years.

At the same time, it’s a rough sell that someone with a 200,000 Euro + salary goes on strike. The ground staff earns a tenth of that, fine I can see their point. Pilot strikes haven’t gotten much support and sympathy in the past as customers see them living in an Ivory Tower and being out of touch.