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Lufthansa planes in Frankfurt: The next strike is looming

Photo: Boris Roessler / picture alliance / dpa

The warning strikes by ground staff at the airports haven't even started yet, but from the perspective of travelers there is the next bad news: Lufthansa passengers have to expect strikes from another professional group.

The flight attendants voted for strikes on Wednesday with a clear majority of more than 96 percent.

This is what the strike votes at Lufthansa and its regional subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline revealed, as the UFO union announced.

A decision on a possible strike scenario and a date will be made later.

UFO boss Joachim Vázquez Bürger emphasized the determination of the members and the entire cabin, which is also reflected in the numerous new entries.

A strike is still avoidable: "We remain open to appropriate offers and fair solutions from the employer in order to possibly avert strikes at short notice."

For the approximately 18,000 cabin employees at Lufthansa and the almost 1,000 employees at Cityline, UFO is essentially demanding 15 percent more money with a contract term of 18 months.

The union also wants to achieve an inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros and higher allowances.

In the separate collective bargaining negotiations for the Lufthansa parent company and the regional subsidiary Cityline, the union rejected the respective offers as inadequate.

Against the background of high losses in purchasing power due to inflation, employees are looking at the sharply increased profits that CEO Carsten Spohr wants to present on Thursday for the past 2023 financial year.

The Independent Flight Attendants Organization (UFO), founded in 1992, is a sectoral union that exclusively represents flight attendants, primarily at Condor and the Lufthansa Group.

In individual flight operations, it competes closely with the DGB union Ver.di, which also wants to organize the flying staff.

Coordinated cooperation between the two unions is unlikely.

In 2015, then-chairman Nicoley Baublies led the UFO into the longest strike in Lufthansa's history, lasting eight days.

In the post-Corona year of 2022, UFO was the only union in the Lufthansa Group to refrain from taking industrial action.

In the collective bargaining agreement, the lower wage groups in particular were raised, while the inflation compensation bonus was postponed until the current collective bargaining round.

A warning strike at the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover this year was the last work stoppage led by UFO, which has had to contend with considerable intra-union quarrels since 2018.

The current chairman, Joachim Vazquez Bürger, flies with Lufthansa Cityline and was elected in November 2023.

Strikes at Lufthansa and security forces on Thursday

Regardless of the UFO strike vote, the Ver.di union has called on employees in Lufthansa's technology, logistics and training areas to go on a warning strike from Wednesday evening at 8 p.m.

All other members of the ground staff are expected to join the strike on Thursday at 4 a.m.

The warning strike ends for all participants on Saturday at 7:10 a.m.

In addition, the aviation security forces in Hamburg and Frankfurt are on strike on Thursday, meaning that no passengers can board there that day.

mmq/dpa