Following a week of labor disputes at Lufthansa, the pilot and cabin crew unions VC and UFO have indicated a temporary strike pause. There are "no further strike resolutions currently," said the chairman of the Independent Flight Attendant Organization (UFO) union, Joachim Vázquez Bürger, to news agency AFP on Friday.
"We are now waiting to see how Lufthansa responds." However, if no appropriate response comes, the union would have no choice but to down tools again, he added. The UFO chairman does not see any movement in the conflict at this point. He stated that the situation is "as entrenched as it has ever been."
The tariff commission of the pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) also declared on Friday in a circular to its members that there would be "no further industrial action measures in the short term." "The focus is initially on the talks and on clarifying whether and how a possible arbitration can be designed," it said. A meeting with the employer side is scheduled for Monday.
Since the beginning of the week, hundreds of Lufthansa flights have been cancelled daily. Lufthansa pilots had already gone on strike on Monday and Tuesday and downed tools again on Thursday and Friday. Their union VC is demanding improvements to the pilots' occupational pension scheme. Strikes affected flights operated by Lufthansa as well as its subsidiary Cityline and the Cargo freight division. On two of these days, work was also downed at Eurowings.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, flight attendants at Lufthansa also went on strike, affecting the core Lufthansa brand and Cityline. UFO had called for the walkout. The collective bargaining dispute here primarily concerns the working conditions of employees.
The company does not provide details on the number of cancelled flights or the number of affected passengers. It only states that 70 percent of flights across the entire Lufthansa Group took place. However, this also includes airlines such as Austrian or Brussels Airlines, which were not subject to strikes.
Lufthansa announced the immediate closure of Cityline on Thursday, citing the current labor disputes and high kerosene costs. The pilot union VC sharply criticized this, saying the decision was made "without consideration for the employees."
UFO chairman Vázquez Bürger also reacted with incomprehension. He said the move was "firstly not necessary and secondly, of course, a massive additional provocation." This does not improve the situation in the collective bargaining conflict, but rather hardens it further.
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