Lufthansa cabin crew threaten week-long strike
Reuters
November 3, 2015, 12:04 am
Lufthansa logo is seen on a self check-in machine at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany, September 8, 2015. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
MOERFELDEN-WALLDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Lufthansa faces a week-long strike from Friday if it does not meet a fresh set of demands from its cabin crew union on retirement and pension benefits, as resistance from staff against its cost-cutting drive shows no sign of letting up.
Flight attendants' union UFO on Monday said it would call for a strike from Nov. 6-13 if the German airline did not respond to its demands with a serious offer.
Lufthansa has until Thursday, 1600 GMT, to respond to a list of demands sent by the union or else face a week-long strike from the following day, the head of the union, Nicoley Baublies, told a news conference on Monday.
He said he did not expect Lufthansa to come around after two years of negotiations.
"All passengers are advised to assume that their flights will not take off," the union head said.
Lufthansa said it regretted the strike threat and said retirement benefits for its flight attendants were already industry-leading in Germany.
Lufthansa is struggling to come to agreements with air crew on how to compete with low-cost carriers on short-haul flights and more efficient Gulf carriers on intercontinental routes.
Despite announcing last week it expected record profits in 2015, the German carrier says it must make cost reductions now if it is to compete in the long term.
It has been in talks with the main cabin crew union over pay, pensions and working conditions at its main German brands Lufthansa and Germanwings. A previous attempt at mediation on the retirement and pension benefits failed in January.
The cabin crew union had already threatened strikes over the summer but relented after management made some compromises.
The carrier is also in talks with its pilots, who have staged over a dozen strikes in 18 months. Strikes this year have so far cost Lufthansa 130 million euros ($144 million), it said last week.
(Reporting by Peter Maushagen; Writing by Ludwig Burger and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)
