Lufthansa pilots announce strike on 2-4 April

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sn26567
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Lufthansa pilots announce strike on 2-4 April

Post by sn26567 »

More than 95% of Lufthansa pilots have voted in favour of going on strike, union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), which represents about 5,400 Lufthansa pilots, announced Friday.

The union is seeking better pay and working conditions for pilots at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings.

According to a VC statement, the vote allows for strike action to begin now, but it would give 48 hours advance notice.

http://atwonline.com/labor/lufthansa-pilots-vote-strike
Last edited by sn26567 on 28 Mar 2014, 15:48, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added actaul date of strike
André
ex Sabena #26567

ticketbuyer
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by ticketbuyer »

Good news for AB, DY, FR and U2.

crew1990
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by crew1990 »

Stupid question, but...

When Lufthansa is on strike, the sister airlines cańt operate some flight for them like for example SN to operate the BRU to MUC and FRA, Swiss to operate the flight between Switzerland and Germany and Austrian the flight between Austria and Germany.

It could help to reduced the number of cancelled flight as LH could then operate the other flights with the crew wich are not striking

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tolipanebas
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by tolipanebas »

Obviously, when one of the group's airlines goes on strike, unions at the other airlines do not allow their sister airline to temporarily take over routes from the member on strike. Re-routing passengers and coming with bigger planes on already planned flight yes, but more than that no.

On top of that: where should the other airlines get the extra crew and the extra planes from to take over all those flights? Remember we are not talking about a low frequency low cost operation with just one or two daily flights here: FRA is 10 times daily for instance, MUC 8 times from BRU, so even for such a short distance flight, you would need at least 3 planes to take over the full Lufthansa schedule between Germany and Belgium.

crew1990
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by crew1990 »

In July and August, there I agree that it´s technically impossible, but in winter the aircraft fly much less so they could actually do this.

Also, not all the employee are involved in the Union, and those one could give a hand to lufthansa, in return, when Brussels Airlines, Austrian or Swiss is on strike, it could be then the other sister Airline witch could help eachother.

The Lufthansa groupe should have a better synergy and act like one airlines using all the crew and aircraft available in such case to reduce the impact on the traffic and then do not lose the trust that our passengers have in our companies.

But as I said I dont have many knowledge about the strike so don t know if this could be a solution ;)

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tolipanebas
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by tolipanebas »

crew1990 wrote:In July and August, there I agree that it´s technically impossible, but in winter the aircraft fly much less so they could actually do this.
As said: there are no 3 Airbus planes sitting idle the whole day to take over the entire LH schedule from Belgium, simple as that really.

Sure, SN could probably squeeze in a few FRA or MUC flights, possibly on the worst times of the day when a plane of us is free for a couple of hours, but for what purpose? It's still going to be a mess operationally to sort it all out (don't forget the plane starts not from the correct base unless you already position it the night before, plus there is no handing contract, etc.) and on top of that, the carrier 'helping' risks infuriating its own unions because they are actively trying to break a strike then?
Not a very good attitude to demonstrate when you want to be on speaking terms with your own unions, is it, as the last thing you'd want to do as a manager is to see social unrest and especially a strike at one entity spread out to other entities, so it's just not worth it really...
crew1990 wrote:The Lufthansa groupe should have a better synergy and act like one airlines using all the crew and aircraft available in such case to reduce the impact on the traffic and then do not lose the trust that our passengers have in our companies.
If the group wants to build extra synergies, they should do so in normal operations, not in breaking strikes as those synergies would come in handy 365 days a year, not just 1 day a year then... ;-)
When looking at all the overhead departments which are still doubled/trippled or even quadrupled at the 4 different airlines of the group, I'd say they better focus on that first.

eurojet
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by eurojet »

Lufthansa is about the most strike-prone European airline of the last years, add to that strikes of German air traffic controllers and security staff at Frankfurt, flying "German" has often been an ordeal, especially when based in Luxembourg and nearly all your flights go through Germany. Over 10 upcoming flights with LH planned to CEE and CIS coming weeks, will be fun again ....

cnc
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by cnc »

too bad they can't all be sacked.
if i would sabotage operations to get more money my C4 would be ready in minutes

Passenger
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by Passenger »

cnc wrote:too bad they can't all be sacked.
if i would sabotage operations to get more money my C4 would be ready in minutes
+ 1

teach
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by teach »

cnc wrote:too bad they can't all be sacked.
if i would sabotage operations to get more money my C4 would be ready in minutes
Speaking as someone who's travelling on Lufthansa in a few weeks and thus might be affected by this: if you want to deny people the right to strike, you really have no place in a free country.

cnc
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by cnc »

teach wrote:
cnc wrote:too bad they can't all be sacked.
if i would sabotage operations to get more money my C4 would be ready in minutes
Speaking as someone who's travelling on Lufthansa in a few weeks and thus might be affected by this: if you want to deny people the right to strike, you really have no place in a free country.
we all want to earn millions without having to work our ass off but that doesn't mean we have to go on strike for it... since its a free country they can switch jobs at any time

Air Key West
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by Air Key West »

We've had this discussion before. I'm self-employed and have no problems with strikes if they are in conformity with the law (in other words, no wild-cat strikes). Striking is a fundamental right in democratic countries. Those who are so vehemently against it have the right to move to a country where they are prohibited.
In favor of quality air travel.

cnc
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by cnc »

so the pilots want to strike and its ok. what about the other LH employees? because of the strike and lost money some other jobs might be in danger. because of the strike some interim ground staff might miss a day of work so a payday less.
and why the fuck would you want to work somewhere if you think its so bad and its so much better everywhere else?

flightlover
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by flightlover »

:
cnc wrote:too bad they can't all be sacked.
if i would sabotage operations to get more money my C4 would be ready in minutes
That is called 'the right to strike'. Without that we will be living in the dark ages of poverty (maybe slavery) pretty soon.
In case you didn't think of it yet I'll explain it for you.

The mantra for the companies is: Do more for less and do it only when needed.
That results in the same recipe over and over again:

More flexibility -> less quality of live, Less time to spend money
Lower wages -> less spending power -> less demand -> less jobs and lower wages
Less jobs -> more pressure to take any job offered, even for low pay and more flexibility

Is a strike a good solution under every circumstance? I'm not convinced either.
But as there is only a minority of altruistic people managing/holding shares in any company, it is a necessity to maintain some sort of decent living conditions for all on this world.

cnc
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by cnc »

oh god so take away the option of strike and you get the dark ages of poverty and slavery?
how about searching an other employer?
you sound like one of my co workers. he's the only one who's in for a strike to get more money but if he go's for it on his own he'll get sacked obviously. not to mention he earns as much as i do, also drives a nice new mercedes, has his own house, just got back from a 2 month holiday in asia... yea he's unable to strike and bound for slavery too

FlightMate
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by FlightMate »

Finding another job is fine when there are more jobs opportunities than job seekers.
the free market would eventually push salaries up.
but now (specially in europe) that there are fewer jobs, it's a race to the bottom for work conditions.
And it's probably cheaper for LH to offer a pay raise covering inflation than to retrain replacements for all their unhappy pilots who'd leave.

teach
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by teach »

cnc wrote:
teach wrote:
cnc wrote:too bad they can't all be sacked.
if i would sabotage operations to get more money my C4 would be ready in minutes
Speaking as someone who's travelling on Lufthansa in a few weeks and thus might be affected by this: if you want to deny people the right to strike, you really have no place in a free country.
we all want to earn millions without having to work our ass off but that doesn't mean we have to go on strike for it... since its a free country they can switch jobs at any time
Bullshit reasoning. In a free society people have the right to be represented by unions, the right to collective bargaining, because that gives them a better, and fairer position against their employer. This also means they have a right to strike if they believe management's position is unacceptable. And this isn't about 'wanting to earn millions', and you know it. That's just very silly hyperbole on you part.

teach
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by teach »

cnc wrote:so the pilots want to strike and its ok. what about the other LH employees? because of the strike and lost money some other jobs might be in danger. because of the strike some interim ground staff might miss a day of work so a payday less.
and why the fuck would you want to work somewhere if you think its so bad and its so much better everywhere else?
You're using simplistic high school level reasoning. So nobody should ever strike in any company where there is more than one category of worker that might be affected by this strike? Welll that rules out pretty much every company out there then, doesn't it? They should just resign if they don't agree with something and go somewhere else? Accept what management offer or piss off?

OK, where? To another company where there quite obviously is no right to strike either for the same reasons, and thus where the employer's conditions will also be 'take it or leave it'?

Be extremely careful what you wish for, because what you wish for is to go back to the situation we had before there were unions. And trust me, you do NOT want that.

flightlover
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by flightlover »

cnc wrote:oh god so take away the option of strike and you get the dark ages of poverty and slavery?
how about searching an other employer?
you sound like one of my co workers. he's the only one who's in for a strike to get more money but if he go's for it on his own he'll get sacked obviously. not to mention he earns as much as i do, also drives a nice new mercedes, has his own house, just got back from a 2 month holiday in asia... yea he's unable to strike and bound for slavery too
You obviously didn't read my last remark:
flightlover wrote:Is a strike a good solution under every circumstance? I'm not convinced either.
But as there is only a minority of altruistic people managing/holding shares in any company, it is a necessity to maintain some sort of decent living conditions for all on this world.
If there are enough people willing to strike it might just be there is a reason for it.
And of course there are not only egoistic people at the helm of a company, there are many at other levels also. The lower you go on hierarchy, the more it levels out as the number of workers goes up on that level.

And about 'returning to the dark ages of poverty':
Take a look at living conditions in other parts of the world. We are spoiled in some way. And maybe you didn't notice it but if you watch some news reports you here it time and time again: 'wages cost too much', 'Productivity has to go up', 'work longer'.
I know it's a bold statement but isn't it what's happening?

cnc
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Re: Lufthansa pilots announce strike

Post by cnc »

teach wrote:So nobody should ever strike
indeed. if you don't like it you are free to leave and nobody forced you to work for your employer in the first place.
i suggest you all start your own company and i'll gladly join you! every time i want a raise or less working hours i'll tell you i'll strike if i don't get it and you will give in to my demands with a big smile because you wouldn't want to be accused of slavery now do you?
those strikes are pure socialistic abuse

i worked years at sabena, BGS, flightcare so don't tell me the unions always strike with a good reason

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