Lufthansa pilots extend strike for another 24 hours

This image shows passengers walking under a display showing cancelled flights due to a strike of the pilots of the German airline Lufthansa at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, November 23, 2016. (By AFP)

Jet pilots working for Germany’s flagship airline, Lufthansa, will be continuing an originally one-day strike for a second day in a bid to mount pressure on the company in a wage dispute.

The pilots started a one-day strike on Wednesday, but their union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said that it planned a 24-hour extension at Lufthansa on Thursday, potentially grounding hundreds of more flights.

The Wednesday strike had already led to the cancellation of roughly a third of all flights of the German airline.

The union said all of Lufthansa’s short- and long-haul flights out of Germany will be affected by the continued industrial action, planned to run until 2259 GMT on Thursday.

The strike is the 14th to hit the German airline in the long-lasting salary dispute between Lufthansa’s management and the VC.

Two judges recently rejected court attempts by Lufthansa’s management to halt the Wednesday strike.

VC demands an annual 3.66-percent pay raise for its pilots. It also demands that pilots be paid the amount of money they would have received over the past five years of the salary freeze if raises had been enforced.

“We’re fighting Lufthansa over the payment for pilots. We have not received a pay increase for more than five years and we called on Lufthansa to make us an offer,” said Joerg Handwerg, a VC board member. “So far, we only have a sham offer on the table. For everything they offer, we are supposed to cut something elsewhere in the labor agreement. We are not happy with that and we demand a negotiable offer. That’s why there is this strike.”

This image shows a Lufthansa jet standing on the tarmac in Duesseldorf, Germany, on November 22, 2016. (By AFP)

Lufthansa spokesman Martin Leutke said the airline has made “plenty of offers” to the pilots, all of which have been turned down. Lufthansa’s management has insisted that despite record profits in 2015, the airline has no choice but to reduce costs if it wants to retain its competitive edge.

The airline said it canceled 876 of the roughly 3,000 short- and long-haul scheduled for Wednesday, affecting about 100,000 passengers.

“It’s pretty annoying. They could have come to an agreement beforehand... Sure, the pilots need to have a certain income, I understand that. But it’s the passengers who suffer” as a result of the strike, said Lufthansa passenger, Rainer Siedle.