German airline Lufthansa grounded as pilots strike again

FRANKFURT – Pilots at German airline Lufthansa will strike again this week, their union Cockpit said today, escalating a wage dispute.

The pilots for passenger flights will walk out from tomorrow 6.01am to Thursday 5.59pm, while the industrial action for those operating cargo flights will last a day longer to Friday 11.59pm, said the union.

Faced with the threat of new chaos, Lufthansa’s management said today it would put forward a “better offer” to the union at urgent talks during the day.

The latest call to strike comes just a week after the airline was forced to cancel almost all its flights on Friday due to a pilots’ walk-out, affecting 130,000 passengers.

Earlier today, Cockpit said that “despite announcements to the contrary, Lufthansa has not yet approached us and has not put forward a new offer”.

“This is absolutely incomprehensible and leads to a further unnecessary escalation of the situation.”

The pilot union is seeking a 5.5% wage increase by the end of the year, automatic compensation for inflation and adjustments on its salary grid.

Lufthansa has said the entire package sought by Cockpit would raise pilot personnel costs by 40% or €900 million (RM4 billion).

With inflation soaring, collective salary bargaining is expected to be tense in the coming months across Europe.

German consumer prices rose by 7.9% in the year to August, according to data published last week by the federal statistics agency Destatis. – AFP, September 6, 2022