Lufthansa takes legal action as strike rumbles on

Lufthansa will take legal action against its pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), following this week’s strike, which continues today.

The German national carrier accused the union of an unwillingness to negotiate, in a dispute that has now been running for two years. VC is unhappy about several issues, including Lufthansa’s plans to cut payments for pilots taking early retirement.

“For the past two years, right up until yesterday, Lufthansa has been approaching the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) Group… with constructive proposals, offers and concessions,” the airline said.

“In doing so, the company has made concrete proposals on every open collective labour agreement issue, with a view to working together with the VC to jointly ensure the future viability and competitiveness of the company as a whole and of Lufthansa German Airlines in particular.

“The response from the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union to the numerous proposals and offers of talks submitted by Lufthansa has been further strike action,” it added.

The airline said it is now “impossible to engage in constructive negotiations” with VC, and will “submit a claim for compensatory damages” against the union. This claims relates to an earlier strike in April 2014, which Lufthansa says cost it around EUR60 million (US$67m).

Lufthansa was forced to cancel almost half of its 174 long-haul flights on Tuesday (8 September). VC has now called another strike today which will lead to the cancellation of 1,000 short- and medium-haul flights and more than 50 long-haul services.

Lufthansa had scheduled to operate 1,520 flights on Wednesday (9 September), 1,350 of which were on short- and medium-haul routes. But 1,000 of these flights will not be able to operate today, due to the strike, affecting 140,000 travellers. Fifty-two of the 176 long-haul flights planned for Wednesday will also be cancelled.

The services of Germanwings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines will all operate as scheduled.