Lufthansa braces for brand spanking new floor crew strike – DW – 03/04/2024 | EUROtoday

A serious German commerce union on Monday known as on Lufthansa floor workers to strike once more on Thursday and Friday, March 7 and eight, because it seeks to extend stress forward of one other spherical of negotiations the next week.

It mentioned that workers ought to cease work from at 4 a.m. on Thursday morning (0300 GMT/UTC) till 7:10 a.m. on Saturday.

Delays and cancellations are possible, with earlier comparable strikes disrupting flights and prompting criticism from Lufthansa.

On February 20, seven German airports had been affected, most Lufthansa passenger flights had been grounded and round 100,000 passengers impacted. The second strike on February 28 centered extra on disrupting cargo companies.

“In the past few days we consciously left passenger travel out of our strikes,” Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky mentioned. “Lufthansa is telling us by ignoring our demands for negotiations that it will only move once the pressure is increased further.”

What Verdi mentioned concerning the newest strike

The influential commerce union Verdi, Germany’s second-largest by general membership, is negotiating on behalf of roughly 25,000 staff within the dispute.

It’s looking for pay rises of 12% for employees it represents, or a minimal of €500 ($542) per thirty days, whichever is increased. Lufthansa has supplied pay will increase over an prolonged interval however Verdi says they don’t meet its calls for.

“It is inexplicable to anyone that this company is about to announce a record annual performance this week, is going to increase bonuses for its board considerably, and that staff on the ground with an hourly wage of sometimes €13 don’t even know how they’re meant to make ends meet in some of Germany’s most expensive cities,” Verdi quoted negotiator Marvin Reschinsky as saying.

A recent spherical of talks, the fifth within the dispute, are set for March 13 and 14. Verdi has mentioned it is not going to return to the negotiating desk earlier until Lufthansa presents an improved supply upfront, a place Lufthansa criticized. Lufthansa had supplied talks for this Monday, March 4.

Planes and trains alike affected by strikes

Trains and public transport companies have additionally been disrupted by a number of strikes in current weeks in Germany with negotiations faltering and no breakthrough in sight.

The disruptions to the motion of individuals and items because of this was even talked about by Germany’s Bundesbank central financial institution final month as a trigger for financial concern because it introduced that the nation might enter a technical recession by the top of the primary quarter.

A number of days later the German authorities revised its financial progress forecast for the approaching 12 months downwards.

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msh/ab (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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