Trade union ver.di calls on 20,000 Lufthansa ground employees to strike on Wednesday, a strike deemed unreasonable by the airline

The trade union ver.di called on the about 20,000 ground employees of Deutsche Lufthansa AG to stage a warning strike from Wednesday, 27 July at 03.45 until Thursday morning, 28 July at 06.00.

The strike on Wednesday will concern ground employees, particularly in maintenance, but also operators of aircraft towing vehicles, essential to the proper functioning of the airport.

“There will be many cancellations and delays,” ver.di announced. “The situation at the airports is degenerating and the employees are increasingly under pressure and overloaded due to a major lack of staff, high inflation and the absence of a raise for three years“, notes Christine Behle, manager at the union. “ver.di calls for the all-day strike to increase pressure on employers to agree to a significantly improved final offer in the next round of negotiations.”

Michael Niggemann, Member of the Executive Board Chief Officer Human Resources Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said:

“After only two days of negotiations, ver.di has announced a strike that can hardly be called a warning strike due to its breadth across all locations and its duration. This is all the more incomprehensible given that the employer side has offered high and socially balanced pay increases – despite the continuing tense economic situation for Lufthansa following the Covid crisis, high debt burdens and uncertain prospects for the global economy.

After the enormous efforts to stabilise our flight operations, this represents a renewed, substantial and unnecessary burden for our passengers and also for our employees beyond the strike day.”

Among other things, the Group has presented a package with the following components. Beginning 1 July 2022, with a term of 18 months, each employee would receive:

• an increase in basic pay of 150 euros per month as of 1 July 2022,
• a further basic pay increase of 100 euros per month as of 1 January 2023,
• an additional two-percent increase in compensation as of 1 July 2023, depending on how our business develops.

It is particularly important for Lufthansa to put a stronger focus on the lower remuneration groups. For example, for employees with a basic monthly salary of 3,000 euros before taxes, the present offer means an increase in basic salary between nine and just under eleven percent within the next 12 months.

The next round of negotiations has long been agreed upon and will take place on 3 and 4 August 2022.

Lufthansa said it was cancelling nearly all flights (more than 1,000) ahead of the walkout by ground staff scheduled for 27 July 2022. Among the cancelled flights are also the Brussels Airlines flights to Frankfurt and Munich on that day, which are mainly used as feeder flights for other Lufthansa routes (see hereunder).

Despite the ver.di strike, Lufthansa’s low-cost unit Eurowings expects largely normal flight operations.

Cancelled flights at Brussels Airport:

To Frankfurt: SN2607 LH1007 LH1009 LH1013 SN2617 LH1019
To Munich: SN2641 LH2283 LH2285 LH2287 LH2289 SN2647 LH2291