The two most important airports in Germany, Frankfurt and Munich, have experienced a day of complete chaos this Wednesday due to Lufthansa’s decision to cancel more than a thousand national and international flights. The suspension of flights, which has affected some 135,000 passengers, has occurred in response to a warning strike by the company’s ground employees, who are demanding a 9.5% salary increase.
At Frankfurt airport, Lufthansa canceled a total of 678 flights, 32 of which had already been canceled on Tuesday, while in Munich the company was forced to cancel a total of 345 flights on both days in a drastic measure in the middle of the season. vacation. “Lufthansa has to cancel almost the entire flight program for Wednesday at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs,” the company had announced on Tuesday. “The escalation after only two days of negotiations in a collective round that has so far been constructive is causing enormous damage,” said Lufthansa Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann, who did not rule out that individual flight cancellations and delays will continue on Thursday and Friday.
In addition to the hubs of Frankfurt and Munich, the airports of Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart and Cologne have also been affected. The Lufthansa Group mainly maintains smaller units there, which also offer their services to other airlines. On the web, passengers complained about last-minute cancellations of intercontinental flights to the United States or Hong Kong. The airline warned transit passengers not to fly to German hubs without a connecting flight, as there is a risk that passengers may not be able to continue their journey for several hours or days.
The Ver.di union announced last Monday that the 20,000 Lufthansa ground workers would join a warning strike from 3:45 a.m. on Wednesday 27 July until 6:00 a.m. on Thursday 28 July, demanding a wage increase for the 9.5%. Ver.di justified the warning strike with an insufficient offer from the company.
The call was supported by a wide range of workers, including counter staff, aircraft technicians and the drivers of the giant tugs that push the planes to their correct position at the airport. Without these services, the planes are condemned to remain on the ground.
During pre-strike negotiations, Lufthansa had offered a pay rise of €250 in two stages over a period of 18 months, to which would be added a profit-related increase of 2% from July next year. With a monthly base salary of 3,000 euros, this would mean an increase of between 9% and 11%, according to the company’s calculations.
Criticism of the strike
The first strike at Lufthansa since the pandemic comes against the backdrop of a partially chaotic new start in the sector. The shortage of personnel in the tasks of handling and strong demand for vacations have already caused considerable problems at airports this summer. The strike called by Ver.di, in addition to the chaos it produced in the country’s airports, was harshly criticized in the German media due to two events. The bild He highlighted that the president of Ver.di is on vacation and other media pointed out that calling a strike in the middle of the vacation season was disproportionate.
But Ver.di’s vice president, Christine Behle, shrugged off the criticism, saying she found the chaos reasonable. “Unfortunately, a strike in air traffic always affects the passengers. We fully understand your annoyance. But the tensions are hardly bearable for the employees at the moment,” said the trade unionist, quoted by Bild.
Lufthansa spokesman Martin Leutke called the strike “unnecessary, excessive and too long”. After all, the company had submitted a substantial offer that could have been discussed further. However, Verdi had decided to carry out the conflict at the expense of the passengers. “There was no need for that strike,” he concluded.
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