Thread: LH on strike again! Nonrevs beware...

Just as long as it's all good by June.....

The strike yesterday was by ground personnel. The bulk of employees in other words. Not just check in or ticketing staff, also operations, despatchers, admin etc etc. I believe some 33,000 in Germany. Last year was the flight attendants, three years ago the pilots. Its all part of the choreography between union and management when collective agreements come up for re-negotiation. Most times a warn strike is announced days in advance and the company then takes remedial action to minimise disruption, informing customers through all available communication channels (and in this day and age there are many) If passengers turned up at the airport yesterday then they probably live in a cave. A contentious point in this round of negotiations is the company's plan to cut some perks notably vacation allowance and Christmas bonus, which for most employees count not as a cherry on the pie but the pie itself as part of their renumeration package to pay mortgages, utility bills etc etc. So its tantamount to a pay cut. Did I also mention management proposes increasing working hours. So we see where things are heading. Another grievance is the potential out-sourcing of frontline staff to a handling agent which has already been done at the smaller stations. Read; cheap labour. Though its hard to see how the union will get such a guarantee in collective agreement. As to your question spongeblue, I think the company did their homework to see how many flights could operate with the given contigent of available staff and crucially which were economically feasible. These departed from the hubs of FRA and MUC. Otherwise aircraft that were already abroad stayed there 24 hours and didn't return to base, so avoiding the bottleneck and chaos of stranded connecting passengers. Things should be back to normal by Tuesday afternoon. So happy flying all you potential Lufthansa non-revers

A German Union has threatened LH with another round of strikes if airline fails to present better pay next week. "If Lufthansa continues to refuse to present a negotiable offer that secures jobs and increases wages appropriately, there will be more strikes," Verdi wage negotiator Christine Behle said on Friday.
On April 22, Lufthansa was virtually grounded by a second strike in a month after Verdi rejected an improved offer by the airline. Analysts estimated that walkout alone cost Lufthansa more than 15 million euros ($19.5 million).
Verdi has been demanding a 5.2 percent pay rise over 12 months and job guarantees for about 33,000 cabin crew and ground staff at Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Systems and LSG Sky Chefs.
Lufthansa argues it needs to cut costs to cope with higher fuel prices and cut-throat competition. It is slashing 3,500 jobs worldwide as part of a programme to boost operating profit to 2.3 billion euros by 2015.
Initially, it wanted to push through a pay freeze, plus longer working hours. But last week, the airline made an offer that the union said represented a salary increase of about 0.5 percent over a 12-month period, with no job guarantees, which it rejected as insufficient before calling on workers to walk out.
Meanwhile, pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said it had asked Lufthansa this week for a 4.6 percent pay increase for the 2013/2014 period. VC has been demanding a 5.2 percent pay rise for 2012/2013 but said talks with Lufthansa have yielded no results so far..