Lufthansa Workers to Strike, BA Averts Labor Action

According to Business Travel News (BTN), Lufthansa ground workers are scheduled to go on an all-day “warning strike” on July 27—from 3:45 a.m. until 6 a.m. July 28—the labor union Ver.di announced Monday. The strike is to affect “all Lufthansa locations,” including Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, and will result in “major flight cancellations and delays.”

The German carrier and the union, which represents about 20,000 Lufthansa employees, have been in negotiations over a 9.5 percent pay increase and other demands by Ver.di. The second round of negotiations took place July 13, where Lufthansa submitted an offer that union members “criticized as insufficient.”

The carrier responded to the warning strike as “unreasonable for customers and employees,” and that it could hardly be considered a warning strike “due to its breadth across all locations and its duration,” said Lufthansa chief human resources officer Michael Niggemann in a statement.

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Aug. 3-4 in Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, the check-in and ground staff employed by British Airways at London’s Heathrow airport have accepted new pay deals, thus ending the potential for “industrial action,” which previously had been voted for by the two unions representing those workers.

Employees who are members of the Unite union agreed to a 13 percent pay increase, to be paid in stages, Unite announced Friday. GMB union workers will receive a consolidated pay raise of 8 percent, a bonus and the reinstatement of shift pay, according to a Reuters report.